ILW.COM - immigration news: Army Policy On Enlisting Undocumented Aliens

Subject: Illegal Aliens (UNCLASSIFIED)

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Mr. Gillison:

Douglas,

I hope you're well. Below is the Army's response to your question concerning the current enlistment practices of the U.S. Army, detailed in Army Regulation 601-210, Regular Army and Army Reserve Enlistment Program, dated May 16, 2005. Please know that I'm not able to respond to hypothetical scenarios--, so this is what I can tell you. In addition, you may attribute the following policy summation to me, LTC Pamela Hart, Army Spokesperson.

The U.S. Army's Policy is to enlist only citizens and legal residents of the United States. However, the law and Army Regulations are flexible enough to permit exceptions to this policy--, particularly during times of military conflict.

Commanders determine the appropriate action to be taken regarding soldiers who enlist erroneously or fraudulently. A commander must evaluate a soldier's service and other criteria in making this determination. Each situation is unique. Army Regulation 635-200, Active Duty Enlisted Separation, dated June 6, 2005, addresses the process for separations based on erroneous or fraudulent enlistment. In any particular case, separation for en erroneous or fraudulent enlistment may be appropriate. In other cases, a commander may determine that a soldier has served so meritoriously that he or she may recommend an exception to the Army's policy to enlist only citizens or legal residents.

The President's Expedited Naturalization Executive Order, dated July 3, 2002, offers soldiers who are not U.S. citizens and who serve this country in places such as Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Korea, and Kosovo, the opportunity to apply for expedited processing of their application for United States citizenship under the provisions of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1440. This section of the law permits "expedited processing " whether or not [a soldier] has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence. This same provision of law also allowed expedited processing for non-U.S. citizen service members who served during World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Especially during times of military conflict, the privilege to serve in the Armed Forces is not and has not historically been limited to citizens.

Please call me if I can help you further.

Best, Pamela

LTC Pamela L. Hart
Chief, Personnel and Human Resources Team
Media Relations Division, Army Public Affairs
1500 Army Pentagon, Room 1E475
Washington, DC 20310-1500

• Immigration Daily
• Archives
• Classifieds
• RSS feed

• Processing times
• Immigration forms
• Discussion board
• Find a lawyer

• Seminars
• Immigration books
• Advertise
• Resources

• Blogs
• About ILW.COM
• Link to us

FIND A LAWYER		More options
State:	Specialty:	Language:

Share this page | Bookmark this page | Print this page |

Add to del.icio.us