Under Legal Pressure, Navy Resumes Sec. 329 Expedited Natz

[As Margaret Stock notes, this is due more to the Samma litigation than to executive action.]

Brandie Nix, DVIDS, Mar. 29, 2022

"For the first time since 2017, Recruit Training Command (RTC) held a naturalization ceremony March 17, in which 25 recruits from 17 countries recited the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and officially became U.S. citizens. The ceremony, held in the USS Yorktown Visitor’s Center, was led by the Honorable Judge Heather McShain, magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Region Legal Service Office (RLSO) Midwest work with RTC to expedite citizenship for recruits who are qualified under the Immigration & Nationality Act Section 329, which allows expedited naturalization for aliens and non-citizen nationals serving in an active-duty status. Naturalization ceremonies were halted in 2017 due to a DoD policy extending the amount of time military members were required to serve before becoming eligible for citizenship. This changed on February 2, with the signing Presidential Executive Order 14012, which requires the Department of Homeland Security and USCIS to facilitate naturalization for members of the military."