THE EFFECT OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 13269 ON NONCITIZEN ENLISTED ACCESSIONS IN THE U.S. MILITARY

Abstract

In this thesis, we analyze the effect of Executive Order 13269 on noncitizen enlisted accessions to the U.S. military as a whole and to each of the Services individually. The Defense Manpower Data Center data used in the study covers 1,983,707 enlisted prior and non-prior service accessions from fiscal year (FY) 2000 to FY2010. In order to analyze the policy effect, we aggregate the data to reflect monthly citizen and noncitizen enlisted accessions. An Ordinary Least Squares Regression using difference-in-difference estimation is adapted to reveal the effect of the policy. The results of the regression analysis show that the decrease in noncitizen accessions is greater than the decrease in citizen accessions after the executive order was implemented. The results of the analyses conducted by using data on the services support these results, except for the Coast Guard. We conclude that the executive order either had no effect or a negative effect on noncitizen enlisted accessions to the military, and we propose several policy recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the executive order. The first recommendation is to establish an effective way of recruiting noncitizens by briefing the recruiters in the Services about the executive order and its current benefits to the United States and to noncitizens. After looking at news articles to see how Executive Order 13269 was perceived and debated within society, we recommend expanding the efforts to advertise the executive order since most discussion of the order is negative. The benefits provided by the executive order should be broadened to include family members, while some requirements might be loosened to attract more noncitizens.