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[Dunamisdeos]

Stock said the service members she’s heard from had been told the Defense Department had not managed to put them through extensive background checks, which include CIA, FBI and National Intelligence Agency screenings and counterintelligence interviews. Therefore, by default, they do not meet the background check requirement.

It's ridiculous that people are being kicked out because, apparently, the government does't feel like running the background checks on these people. That is absolutely a contrived reason to remove someone from the service.

[nenjin]

I'm not directing anything at him. Just the statement.

[Trekkin]

It's ridiculous that people are being kicked out because, apparently, the government does't feel like running the background checks on these people. That is absolutely a contrived reason to remove someone from the service.

Even if they did feel like it, they can't process them quickly enough, because Trump added new and more onerous background check requirements. It is hard to ascribe a motivation to his actions other than deliberate obstruction.

[Dunamisdeos]

It's ridiculous that people are being kicked out because, apparently, the government does't feel like running the background checks on these people. That is absolutely a contrived reason to remove someone from the service.

Even if they did feel like it, they can't process them quickly enough, because Trump added new and more onerous background check requirements. It is hard to ascribe a motivation to his actions other than deliberate obstruction.

See now, that's the kicker to me. Were these background checks added recently? Are they required of every army member, or for that matter every immigrant? Is it just immigrants from certain locations, or ones that have been in the country long enough?

I highly recommend that we look into this further. This article is deliberately leading readers to come to the conclusion that Immigrants are being targeted with an extremely transparent method of removing immigrants from the military. That might well be what is going on, mind you, but that's an extremely serious thing. The only reason to do that is if you intend to direct the military to take action that an immigrant might take issue with.

::EDIT::
My usual method is to actively try and find a way to disprove an article no matter the source, and then compare facts afterwards. Super skeptical of everyone at all times in the news is my way to avoid being bamboozled.

I had some extra time and found nothing anywhere that shows that this is anything but a targeted attempt to remove immigrants from the military. I'm sure more info will be brought to light, but this is really, really troubling.

Spokespeople for the Pentagon and the Army said that, due to the pending litigation, they were unable to explain the discharges or respond to questions about whether there have been policy changes in any of the military branches.

Our methods come with a built-in-excuse not to explain ourselves to the populace. We don;t have to explain ourselves to you. We don't have to explain anything to anybody.
~The Pentagon, not a quote

[Trekkin]

It's ridiculous that people are being kicked out because, apparently, the government does't feel like running the background checks on these people. That is absolutely a contrived reason to remove someone from the service.

Even if they did feel like it, they can't process them quickly enough, because Trump added new and more onerous background check requirements. It is hard to ascribe a motivation to his actions other than deliberate obstruction.

See now, that's the kicker to me. Were these background checks added recently? Are they required of every army member, or for that matter every immigrant? Is it just immigrants from certain locations, or ones that have been in the country long enough?

To answer your questions:

1. Late 2017, apparently.
2. From the same article, looks like just green card holders have to get the check done before beginning basic training -- which is significant, since that's part of what matters for citizenship. (EDIT: although a contemporaneous change lengthened those requirements considerably) Citizens go through the same check, but it looks like it only needs to have started for them to go train.
3. Well, MAVNI, which is apparently what most of the affected people were going through, required lawful residence for two years with no period spent outside the US longer than 90 days.

It looks like they're trying to stall them until the green cards lapse, honestly.

[Dunamisdeos]

Ah thank you, I must have missed that in the article. I had to start and stop a lot. However, according to all of these articles popping up it's not that they're failing it, it's that the guvmint is refusing to perform it. Others (claim that they) have been given no reason whatsoever.

Even Fox News has nothing nice to say about this. Ouch.

[Trekkin]

Ah thank you, I must have missed that in the article. I had to start and stop a lot. However, according to all of these articles popping up it's not that they're failing it, it's that the guvmint is refusing to perform it. Others (claim that they) have been given no reason whatsoever.

Even Fox News has nothing nice to say about this. Ouch.

Yeah, like I said, they added requirements so onerous they couldn't possibly fulfill them and are now removing immigrants for failing to pass checks the government can't run in time.

At a wild guess, this might have something to do with John Kelly being both a blatant stratocrat (of the "the Corps is at war. America is at the mall" type) and xenophobic enough to invite Stephen Miller over for Thanksgiving. He started being chief of staff July 2017; this happened around October.

[Dunamisdeos]

Ah thank you, I must have missed that in the article. I had to start and stop a lot. However, according to all of these articles popping up it's not that they're failing it, it's that the guvmint is refusing to perform it. Others (claim that they) have been given no reason whatsoever.

Even Fox News has nothing nice to say about this. Ouch.

Yeah, like I said, they added requirements so onerous they couldn't possibly fulfill them and are now removing immigrants for failing to pass checks the government can't run in time.

At a wild guess, this might have something to do with John Kelly being both a blatant stratocrat (of the "the Corps is at war. America is at the mall" type) and xenophobic enough to invite Stephen Miller over for Thanksgiving. He started being chief of staff July 2017; this happened around October.

Would you mind linking to the info you're reading this from? I'm not questioning the accuracy of your statements, I'm legit interested in the reading. Much appreesh.

FAILEDIT: Also, if it's a situation where they cannot process them in time, then the solution is to extend the deadline. The idea that they have the time to kick them out and not the time to simply extend the deadline shows a certain amount of deliberation.

[Trekkin]

Well, the Thanksgiving thing is from Politico:
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/21/stephen-miller-family-separations-immigration-policy-664278
John Kelly's term I got off Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kelly#White_House_Chief_of_Staff

The stratocrat thing is more speculative on my part, but if you read the transcript of his interview concerning Trump's call to Myeisha Johnson his statements certainly lean that way. Here's a list:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/john-kelly-and-the-language-of-the-military-coup

Note that the specific quote I used is not from Kelly; it's from 2006. I was using it to illustrate his apparent attitude.

EDIT:
If you meant the MAVNI stuff, it looks like I'm actually wrong about the timeline according to this lawsuit. I'll see what I can plot out when I have more time, but right now it looks like there's been some conflation of the closure of MAVNI, the new SSBI requirements, and when those requirements were made preemptive. It looks like the expiry of legal status is a major problem, though.

[Reelya]

Stock said the service members she’s heard from had been told the Defense Department had not managed to put them through extensive background checks, which include CIA, FBI and National Intelligence Agency screenings and counterintelligence interviews. Therefore, by default, they do not meet the background check requirement.

It's ridiculous that people are being kicked out because, apparently, the government does't feel like running the background checks on these people. That is absolutely a contrived reason to remove someone from the service.

The section right before that quote is also very relevant to understanding the context:

Margaret Stock, an Alaska-based immigration attorney and a retired Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who helped create the immigrant recruitment program, said she’s been inundated over the past several days by recruits who have been abruptly discharged.

Stock said the service members she’s heard from had been told the Defense Department had not managed to put them through extensive background checks, which include CIA, FBI and National Intelligence Agency screenings and counterintelligence interviews. Therefore, by default, they do not meet the background check requirement.

So, this isn't a normal thing that happens, it's a sudden influx of people being booted out of the military unexpectedly because Trump seems to have initiated something new. The harsh new background checks can be failed by merely having a family member in another country and/or include things that the US intelligence services just physically cannot check, and in this case they've decided that if the CIA and FBI are physically incapable of checking the things that Trump wants them to check, then the individual has "failed" the checks. Which makes it a guilty until proven innocent type thing.

[Shazbot]

So is it a Stalinist purge of the army or a bureaucratic fuckup? Or a deliberate, Stalinist bureaucratic fuckup to purge the army? All depends on if your foil is shiny-in or shiny-out.

[hector13]

So you don’t think Trump has anything against immigrants?

[Shazbot]

Well that's a rather poor reductionist strawman. Most people put some effort into it.

[PTTG??]

How about this: Is the Trump administration's obvious scapegoating and disruption of Latino citizens and foreigners itself unacceptable? Does it seem reasonable to expect it to continue to grow in extent? Above all, outside of racist hatred, (or pandering to it,) what could explain these most recent actions?

[Shazbot]

Maybe you should try the reverse.

"Would a xenophobic bigot intent on purging the military in pursuit of his racist ideology be content at forty expelled following a rules change half a year ago?"

See how silly that is? Everything Trekkin wrote makes far more sense. Rules got re-written into a mess, the Pentagon doesn't want to comment in standard CYA fashion, and the news is trying to whip you into thinking nonsense over it. Now calm down. Over everything, frankly. Trump isn't exactly going to install ovens at Obama's concentration camps any time before 2020.