{"id":13036,"date":"2019-08-15T20:11:07","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T20:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/08\/15\/immigrant-recruit-stuck-in-mavni-limbo\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:02:00","slug":"immigrant-recruit-stuck-in-mavni-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2019\/08\/15\/immigrant-recruit-stuck-in-mavni-limbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Immigrant recruit stuck in MAVNI limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Allan Rimban has been trying to do everything right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 2015, the Philippines native enlisted in the Army under a program that allows legal U.S. residents to serve<\/a> in the military and earn their citizenship<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his ship date was more than two years ago. At that time, the Defense Department began implementing an enhanced screening protocol<\/a> that pushed his residency into a gray area. Then they rejected him because of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He spent over a year waiting to clear a background check, and when it did, the DoD Consolidated Adjudications Facility told him he wasn\u2019t suitable to join the military because he had overstayed his visa \u2015 while waiting for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t have let me enlist if my visa expired before my ship date,\u201d Rimban, 32, told Military Times on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A closer look at the history of the Military Accessions to Vital the National Interest program<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Now, he\u2019s waiting for a decision on his appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore than 100 days since I submitted my rebuttal, nothing has happened and I\u2019m afraid nothing will,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he took his oath, he still had more than nine months left on his visa. It expired in August 2016, a month after he was scheduled to ship to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he could have started his citizenship application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn my case, I feel very wronged because in my adjudication \u2013 overstaying a visa isn\u2019t even in the guidelines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rimban moved to California in 2013 to study for a master\u2019s degree in urban planning at San Jose State University. He grew up in a \u201chighly Americanized, middle-class\u201d family, he said, watching Band of Brothers <\/i>and idolizing Capt. Dick Winters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, he intended to go back home after his three-year visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in 2015 his brother sent him a link to a talk show discussion of Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, a program dating back to 2008, which allows legal immigrants with certain attributes \u2015 in Rimban\u2019s case, a master\u2019s degree and foreign language skills \u2015 to join up and eventually become citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He met with a recruiter and he was approved. He took his enlistment oath in late 2015 and planned to head to basic the following summer, until his recruiter let him know a few weeks before that there would be a delay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time, questions were swirling about the MAVNI program<\/a>, and whether its screening process was allowing recruits with close foreign ties to fudge their applications and get access to sensitive information. It was suspended in 2016, leaving about 1,000 hopefuls to push through an enhanced background screening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously, MAVNI recruits had been allowed to attend basic while they waited for these checks, but with the longer process, they had to stay home and wait for a determination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are working diligently and with all deliberate speed to complete all background investigations for the MAVNI population to honor the commitments we made to MAVNI recruits,\u201d Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood told Military times on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memo from the Pentagon\u2019s then-deputy chief management officer Peter Levine, who was performing the duties of the defense under secretary for personnel and readiness, instructed MAVNI recruits whose visas were in danger of running out to apply for deferred action, a legal status that allows immigrants to work and live in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the beginning of the MAVNI pilot program, the Department has advised participants that the accession process can be long and complicated and that they should maintain their immigration status or seek an alternate status throughout the process,\u201d Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rimban applied for deferred action that December, the same month he did his first MAVNI background interview. The deferred action came through in April 2017. He knew others who had their cases tied up and shipped to basic, but he continued to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had a security clearance interview later that year as part of the background check<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was truthful and I reported it to my counterintelligence interviewers,\u201d he said of his immigration status. \u201cI gave them all my documents, including my deferred action letter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2018, their determination came back: An unfavorable recommendation for a security clearance, citing \u201cother issues,\u201d because he had overstayed his visa \u2015 despite deferred action providing legal residency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But DoDCAF adjudicators are supposed to be following a \u201cwhole person concept\u201d when they make decisions, taking into account the context of a possible disqualifier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to their guidelines, if someone has an issue that would preclude them from a clearance, the adjudicators are supposed to consider factors like the nature and seriousness of the issue, and the circumstances surrounding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m all for national security,\u201d Rimban said. \u201cAnd if the process finds people who have undesirable characteristics or would be prone to bribery or disloyalty, eventually, I\u2019m all for keeping them out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t