A group of soldiers, family, and community members came together Saturday to fight a deportation order for a former U.S. soldier.
Army Private 1st class Miguel Perez, Jr., was born in Mexico and grew up in Chicago. On Monday, Perez faces a deportation hearing because he committed a non-violent drug offense, his family said.
Perez represents thousands of green card veterans who face deportation, according to a press release by Ashley's Memory Project, which was started by the immigrant mother of a deceased veteran, and a local church. They said many enlist with the promise of citizenship.
He served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and was injured in an explosion. He sustained a brain injury and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, his family said.
[...]
The family said that Perez did not get the adequate medical attention when he returned home and turned to self medication with drugs and alcohol.
ABC Chicago
He won't be alone. There's a "bunker" in Tijuana.
Barajas and the veterans staying with him are establishing a new life in Tijuana — a life after deportation. Their stories are similar: Each was honorably discharged from the military, but was later charged with a deportable offense — for example, drug possession, discharge of a firearm or perjury. In some cases, the veterans say, their offenses were triggered by the post-traumatic stress they developed after serving in combat. Most have spent the vast majority of their lives in the United States and are now starting over in a country they barely know.
[...]
No agency tracks the number of deported vets, but some immigration advocates estimate there are hundreds, if not thousands. Barajas says he is aware of more than 300 in 19 countries, including Bosnia, Ghana and Ecuador. Most deported veterans were permanent residents (green-card holders) at the time they enlisted; according to Department of Defense spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Nate Christensen, about 5,000 documented noncitizens sign up for the military every year.
[...]
While some deportable acts still allow a veteran to apply for citizenship and avoid deportation, a subset of those actions — called “aggravated felonies” — guarantees deportation and prevents the person from ever applying for citizenship.
Such actions have grown to a “laundry list of random offenses,” including misdemeanors that don’t require jail time, says Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney with Cascadia Cross-Border Law and retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve who has worked with deported veterans.
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“I’m suggesting that we recognize the loyalty factor involved with having somebody serve in the United States [military],” [immigration attorney Craig Shagin] said. “We are, and we should expect them to be loyal to us. And if we’re expecting that from them, the reciprocal obligation of the States is to provide them the loyalty of nationality.”
[...]
Barajas, who said he joined the military to escape the “drug-infested gang neighborhood” where he grew up in California, moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Rosarito, a town 15 miles south of Tijuana. He relied on his parents and the mother of his daughter back in the United States for financial support as he applied for a Mexican government ID — a requirement for many jobs — and searched for work. After six months, he found a job as a nursing-home caregiver, working 12-hour shifts.
As he found more stability, he was able to help other deported veterans by letting them share his Rosarito apartment. Barajas rarely charged rent, relying on his salary as well as donations from his family and military buddies. (Many of those donors are still regular contributors today, giving more than $1,300 in the past six months.) When he lost his job at the nursing home in October 2012, he devoted himself full-time to helping deported veterans and began sharing their stories through his Facebook group, Banished Veterans.
al Jazeera
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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