A federal judge struck down a Pentagon policy which slows the citizenship path of non-citizens in the U.S. military.

The overturned policy required a potential citizen to serve at least 180 days in active service, or one year as a reservist, to qualify for certification leading to citizenship.

A class action lawsuit filed in April by eight active duty service members, seven long-time permanent U.S. residents and one Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, plaintiff, contended that the Defense Department's length-of-service requirement was a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

U.S. District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle, in a 62-page ruling on Tuesday, said the law indicates that the military can determine only if an enlistee "served honorably."

"While a fuller military record may be necessary to determine whether someone is suitable to serve in the military, defendants have not explained why it is necessary for eligibility to naturalize," Huvelle wrote in part. "DOD may not, through a time-in-service requirement or an active-duty requirement, convert this determination to a certification of present military suitability or active honorable service."

The case, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, moved quickly through the District of Columbia District Court. The lead plaintiff was Army Pfc. Ange Samma, formerly of Burkina Faso and currently serving in South Korea.

To begin the naturalization process, service members must receive an N-426 certification of honorable service from the Defense Department, allowing the citizenship process to begin.

The lawsuit charged that security checks and similar actions by the Pentagon blocked their paths to citizenship and caused delays in obtaining security clearances and other requirements needed for careers after military service.

It also alleged that the Defense Department "adopted an unlawful policy of withholding certifications of plaintiffs' honorable service, which they require to apply to naturalize based on their ongoing military service."

"As a result, defendants are denying thousands of men and women in uniform the U.S. citizenship that Congress has long promised to non-citizens serving in our military."

The security checks were instituted in 2017 to protect against infiltration by foreign nationals with ties to terrorism. About 10,400 foreign nationals were recruited between 2008 and 2016 through a program designed to bring in non-citizens with needed language skills and health care or technology proficiency.

Pentagon to crowdsource input on improving diversity, inclusion
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 25, 2020 –

The Department of Defense is crowdsourcing input from service members and civilian DoD employees for ways to better promote diversity and inclusion in the department.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked for the process as part of a Board on Diversity and Inclusion the Pentagon convened in July as part of a raft of diversity initiatives he announced in June.

The board, chaired by Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, has created a website to crowdsource input from DoD personnel through Oct. 16.

"The secretary wants to hear from all of our service members about what the DOD can do to improve diversity and inclusion," said Marine Corps Maj. Sharon A. Sisbarro, a member of the board's support office.

Rather than send out a survey, Sisbarro said the website invites input in a more open-ended way: "We adopted a kind of crowdsourcing-like model, where we just said, 'Tell us what we need to do.'"

Anyone with a common access card can access the site, but comments will be anonymous, Sisbarro said.

The Pentagon plans to use the tool to get a better sense of what service members and staff think top brass should do to promote more diversity and inclusion in military ranks.

According to Sisbarro, the board will look at a range of issues, from grooming standards to first-person experience sharing about the reality of life as a racial minority in the military.

The crowdsourcing effort comes amid a summer of protests against racial injustice in many U.S. cities, and a renewed national conversation about race. For the Pentagon, this has included recent directives to ban racist symbols from military installations and discussion about changing the names of some installations.

The disappearance and death of Spc. Vanessa Guillen at Fort Hood in Texas — who told family members she was being sexually harassed on the base — have also sparked a conversation about the treatment of women in the military.

Guillen's death and those of two other soldiers on or near Fort Hood — from which another soldier was reported missing last week — led the military to conduct a review of the culture of the installation,

At the end of July Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said the service does not have a problem with diversity, but with inclusion — 39% of soldiers identify as racial minorities, compared to 24% of the country, but the diversity drops off higher in the ranks, as 71% of Army officers identify as White.

The other efforts Esper announced in June included the assembly of an external advisory committee on diversity and inclusion in the military, and a review of policies such as one requiring that photos be included on promotion applications.