A Chinese national who briefly served in the U.S. Army under a procedure he thought would legally gain him U.S. citizenship is now the subject of a potential deportation order over visa fraud allegations, according to a new report.
The Washington Post detailed the saga involving 27-year-old Xilong Zhu, who emigrated to the U.S. in 2009 to attend college. He graduated from Beloit College in 2013 and later enrolled in what he thought was a school in New Jersey, which allowed him to enlist in the Army and begin the process of becoming a U.S. citizen via a special program that allowed foreign nationals with medical and language skills to enlist.
That school, however, was set up by federal immigration authorities as a way to catch people trying to commit visa fraud. Zhu did graduate from the Army's Basic Combat Training course in June 2016, but was handed an honorable discharge months later and was placed into ICE custody.
Now he's ensnarled in a legal battle to remain in the U.S., saying he was duped into enrolling at the fake school.
The Post cited a February directive from Defense Secretary James Mattis that said Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients who enrolled in the Army would not be subject to deportation if they receive an honorable discharge — which amounts to around 800 people. There is no indication, however, that Zhu was part of DACA.
The Post reported that ICE assistant chief counsel Jordan L. Jones wrote in a court filing last month that Mattis was talking about DACA program enrollees when he promised not to deport them.
Zhu can be deported "despite his honorable discharge," Jones wrote.
DACA recipients have been in limbo for months after Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the program would end in March. A judge ultimately postponed that order, which allowed people who illegally came to the U.S. as children with their parents to stay as the courts and lawmakers figure out what to do next.
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