New clearance rules for new citizens p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

U.S. intelligence agencies have loosened security clearance and hiring rules to open their ranks to first- and second-generation Americans and to outside professionals with cutting-edge technological skills.

First- and second-generation immigrants have been essentially blackballed from getting the highest security clearances because of their ties to people in other countries, Ronald P. Sanders, associate director of national intelligence, told the Associated Press.

The problem is that those are exactly the kind of people the intelligence agencies need to help penetrate extremist networks.

Until October, it was nearly an automatic disqualification to have close relatives who were not U.S. citizens, and dual citizens had to renounce their foreign citizenships.

Now dual citizens are being actively encouraged to apply, as they can travel more freely between the U.S. and their other nation without raising suspicions.