Partner Jennifer Wollenberg spoke with Law360 about Morgan Lewis’s role in establishing and funding a two-year fellowship with the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the American Immigration Council to help guide noncitizen soldiers and veterans through the naturalization process.
Jennifer said that while the firm-led litigation removed the legal impediments for Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) participants to apply for citizenship, the fellowship will also give them the individualized assistance to become US citizens. She added that the fellowship is important for the same reason the underlying class actions were.
"There are thousands of MAVNI soldiers and veterans who brought to the US Army vital language and health care skills, and did everything that was asked of them, but then were left in the cold on the one thing that they were promised in return, which was citizenship," Jennifer said.