The U.S. Army has discharged more than 500 immigrant enlistees during a 12-month period after being promised a path to citizenship, according to the Associated Press.
Those enlistees were part of the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) recruiting program, a path for noncitizens to come on board with the military in exchange for becoming a citizen sooner.
The program was launched in 2008 due to the military’s need for immigrants with medical and foreign language skills, but was put on hold in 2016 “after several classified assessments concluded that the program, as previously configured, was vulnerable to an unacceptable level of risk from insider threats such as espionage, terrorism, and other criminal activity,” according to the Pentagon.
According to a list turned in to the U.S. District Court in D.C., which was obtained by the Associated Press, a grand total of 502 military service members brought on via the MAVNI program have been cut loose between July, 2017, and July, 2018.