The Marine Corps told its recruiters to stop promoting an immigration program that provides temporary legal status to certain undocumented family members of troops, a move that comes as the Trump administration continues to target increasing numbers of undocumented immigrants for deportation.
The program, parole-in-place, or PIP, is run by the Department of Homeland Security and is intended to address immigration issues affecting military families in an effort to reduce concerns for service members whose immediate relatives do not have legal status in the U.S. The policy was first rolled out in 2007 during the height of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan when hundreds of thousands of American troops were deployed overseas.
The recruiters were posting about the program on social media accounts in recent months with multiple appearing to show the same fact sheet-style graphic and verbiage, adorned with an Eagle, Globe and Anchor and a picture of a Marine hugging his parent.
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Spokespeople for Marine Corps Recruiting Command told Military.com that the service had identified about a dozen posts during a "limited review" of recruiters' online content about parole-in-place, and the command directed them to "cease posting and remove existing posts regarding" the policy last month.
Some of the recruiters' social media posts appeared to remain active as of Wednesday and had been posted as long ago as February.
The military often highlights paths to citizenship as a recruiting tactic, though fulfillment of policies such as PIP has never been guaranteed.
It was unclear how many Marines or other service members have already applied for the immigration benefit.
Jim Edwards, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command, said parole-in-place is solely administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and is not a Department of Defense or Marine Corps "policy, benefit or enlistment incentive."
"Because the Marine Corps does not administer or promote PIP, no official Marine Corps recruiting materials reference the policy, and recruiters were informed that they are not the proper authority to promote PIP or imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families," Edwards said.
A spokesperson for USCIS, Matthew Tragesser, said the agency "honors the sacrifices made by U.S. service members and their families by providing dedicated resources and processes to assist with their immigration and naturalization journeys," adding that the agency works with the services "to promote this benefit."
Between 2013 and June 2024, roughly 82,000 noncitizens applied for PIP, with 61,000 having received the benefit, according to USCIS data.
Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac, another Marine Corps spokesperson, said "we did not ask each individual recruiter why they posted the content," adding that MCRC is focused on removing the posts and "promoting Marine Corps benefits, such as a sense of purpose, the pride of belonging, leadership and self-reliance."
The Marine Corps is not alone in its recruiters promoting parole-in-place on social media in recent months, despite many of the services telling Military.com they're not allowed to.
While there was no reference in the responses from spokespeople suggesting the policy was in jeopardy, CBS reported that the administration had placed the parole-in-place policy under review during President Donald Trump's first term, stoking fears that it could have been revoked. And because parole-in-place is a DHS-managed policy, not a law, its application remains subject to the whims of its enforcer.
The program, which offers temporary legal status in one-year increments to those who are approved, first got its start because of the enormous stress on the force as it participated in two major campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"One of the reasons why we put the parole-in-place program in place years ago was because there was a significant morale problem and readiness problem within the military when we couldn't take care of family members and military members because of immigration problems; it interfered with readiness," said Margaret Stock, a retired Army lieutenant colonel and Alaska-based immigration attorney.
"It didn't make any sense that you're deploying somebody overseas and they're fighting for America and, at the same time, you're deporting their family members," she said.
Recruiters' promotion of the policy in recent months could present a "major professional ethical issue" for them and a perilous scenario for service members as immigrants scramble to access naturalization pathways, according to Stock.
Part of the policy requires that applicants disclose their family members' immigration status to USCIS, according to Stock, opening the door for them to be identified as deportable or arrestable if the agency decides not to offer those discretionary options in the future.
Marino Branes, a Marine Corps veteran and California-based immigration attorney, said he would still encourage service members to apply for the policy "at this moment," because it is being offered by USCIS and he has seen successful issuance of visas under parole-in-place during this administration.
But he urged service members not to seek it through recruiters, who need to make quotas, but with an experienced immigration attorney.
"They got to be careful on how they say things, because it can affect lives," he said of the recruiters.
"We're getting them approved, and the people who have gotten approved, they're getting residency cards," Branes added. However, he said they should proceed with "caution" because "at any moment this could take a flip."
Trump has made deportations a top priority in his second term, aiming for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest 3,000 migrants per day, tripling its previous quota. The efforts have already affected the military community after ICE detained several family members of veterans and service members.
In recent years, federal immigration authorities took military service into consideration when deciding whether to enforce deportations or detainment against immigrant troops, veterans and their families. But the attorneys said that deference to service has now either stopped or isn't clearly being taken into consideration.
ICE referred Military.com to the Department of Homeland Security when asked late last month whether it considers military service when enforcing deportation. DHS did not reply by publication.
"They're no longer exercising discretion in favor of military members and their families," Stock said. "It creates an irreconcilable conflict for the military member, and it cuts against the message the military likes to put out that we take care of people, that we don't hurt family members and military members."
"We've stopped taking care of people," she added.
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