© The MilitaryImmigrant military recruits
The Marine Corps is the only branch that's on track to make its 2023 recruiting goal. The Army is coming off its worst recruiting performance in decades, and its surveys have determined that young Americans' fear of death and mental illness are the biggest reasons they won't sign up. On top of that, it's estimated that only 23% of 17- to 24-year-olds meet physical, mental and moral requirements for Army service without obtaining a waiver.
The dismal situation has the Army and Air Force setting its sights on legal immigrants, luring them with not only the standard pitches about training and education benefits, but also with the promise of taking a major shortcut to American citizenship.
The front row of 14 immigrant-airmen sworn in as citizens at an April 2023 USAF basic training graduation at Lackland AFB in San Antonio came from countries that included Russia, South Africa, Cameroon, Jamaica and Kenya."We have large populations of legal U.S. residents who are exceptionally patriotic, they're exceptionally grateful for the opportunities that this country has provided," Maj. Gen Ed Thomas, commander of the Air Force Recruiting Service, told the Associated Press.
Through a new program, immigrants are enrolled in the citizenship system upon their commitment to service. An accelerated process then kicks in once they arrive at their basic training installation, with the goal of swearing them in as citizens when they graduate.
The Army and Air Force recruiting commands are seeking target-rich environments in areas of high immigrant concentration and, where possible, are attempting to assign recruiters with matching ethnicities, and social media is one of the preferred avenues of attack.
"It is one thing to hear about the military from locals here, but it is something else when it's from your fellow brother, from the country you're from," new Army reservist and native Nepali Esmita Spudes Bidari told AP. Bidari was targeted by a Nepali US Army recruiter via a Facebook group to facilitate connections between Nepalis in America. "That brother was in the group and he was recruiting and he told me about the military."
Of the Army's 2,900 immigrants recruited this fiscal year, most are from Jamaica, then Mexico, the Philippines and Haiti. Many others came from Nepal, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
Recruiting immigrants involves extra red tape, with another layer of security screening and coordination with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Among the associated headaches for recruiters is helping people with a limited command of English navigate and comprehend the paperwork.
...then again, given recruiters' long-standing reputation for dishonesty, perhaps they find the language barrier comes in handy.
Reader Comments
Does it not seem evident that there are some members in positions of authority within the US military who apparently have forgotten the oath they took?
Does it not seem evident that Congress is equivalent to a gimp arm blown off already? Does it not seem as if the judicial branch of gubment is already subsumed and absorbed by nefarious entities? Is it not obvious that the delaware dimwit is a puppet being pulled by strings from others who could give a literal flip about the cattle peasants living in the us of a? That is corporate life for you I reckon and that is why I quit my old job.
Does it not seem evident that big changes are on the way?
The US government has been demonising the white population anyway possible and labelling them white supremacists.
Now that population wants nothing to do with the government.
So now all that’s left to recruit is soys in dresses and immigrants.
It’ll still be blamed on white supremacy somehow.
Keep your powder dry!
I hope you enjoyed your food.
Petty excuses. Traditionally most recruits came from white patriotic families with multigenerational record of service. But now that patriotism is labeled white supremacy and normal sexual orientation as a defect - what kind of an idiot would sign up? They all wised up to the fact that as a vet at the privatized VA it’d take weeks to get an appointment and if you become homeless they would even kick you out of a hotel to house illegals instead. Shameful.
Does he even know what "patriotic" means?