I am interested in joining the Navy for a position involving Computer Security, however, I read that you need to meet certain qualifications for a TS/SCI since it’s needed for the job I’m interested in.
I have a completely clean record, no drug / alcohol abuse, tickets, etc. However, both my parents are from Mexico and are here undocumented. Everyone else in my immediate family is a US Citizen and I even had a sister who had a Security Clearance before as she needed it for her job in the Army.
I’ve seen other posts about people getting their clearance even with undocumented parents, however, one of my parents did something when I was about 5 years old that I didn’t know about until I was in my teens. To sum it up, based on what I was told by my other parent, they stole some money from a business they were a manager at (a fast food restaurant) and never payed it back / ran from the situation. This happened after my sister got her clearance so I’m assuming it wasn’t something she had to explain when going through her initial investigation. Would I be at risk of being disqualified for the clearance even though this information was kept from me at a young age and I didn’t find out until later?
You will get asked a few extra questions (did you help them enter/stay/evade detection, do you work in a role that involves immigration, etc, can your parents status be used against you for blackmail, etc) but overall the investigation is focused on you.
It happened when you were five and you didn’t find out about it until you were a teen. Even if you helped them hide, you were a child. This should have zero impact. As noted, you MAY be asked about it but I’m not even sure how it will come up.
I’m out of the cleared industry for about five years now but I went through several investigations over the last 20 years. My father’s drug arrest in 1973 never came up and we have the same name.
Just be upfront about their status and locations. Most investigators will treat you with the respect and decency you deserve as a US citizen with undocumented parents. But, there are some out there who carry a chip on their shoulder about your parents status. Don’t let that attitude frazzle you. We can all be hopeful that the next administration will not use the collected information on your parents (and the hundreds of thousands of other active duty military members’ parents) for malfeasance and nefarious unethical purposes.
