Trump To Keep Policy That Grants Citizenship Through Military Service

The Trump administration will keep in place a policy that allows immigrants to earn expedited U.S. citizenship by serving in the military, a Department of Defense (DOD) official confirmed to Fox News.

A 2002 executive order issued by former President George W. Bush opened the door for the military to recruit noncitizens and work with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to streamline citizenship processing for service members. DOD spokesman Lt. Col. Myles Caggins told Fox News that the administration has no plans to discontinue or change the policy.

“Law ensures that the sacrifice of noncitizens during a time of national need is met with an opportunity for early citizenship, to recognize their contribution and sacrifice,” Caggins wrote in an email, according to Fox News’s Monday article.

Under current law, all noncitizens who have served honorably in the U.S. military on or after Sept. 11, 2001 are eligible to immediately file for citizenship. The Naturalization at Basic Training Initiative, implemented by the Obama administration in 2009, allows immigrants to naturalize when they graduate from boot camp.

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