Posted on 01/26/2016 3:50:34 PM PST by raybbr
TIJUANA, Mexico – They served the United States on battlefields from Korea to Iraq, but now they live in the shadow of the nation they once served, deported to Mexico for offenses as minor as getting caught with marijuana.
While many U.S. veterans find adjusting to civilian life difficult, writing a bad check, possessing marijuana or getting into a bar fight are enough to get some veterans banished from the nation they fought to protect. That’s because they were not citizens when they donned the uniform and took up arms for America. Any U.S. obligation to them ended when they got in trouble with the law.
“Some people get out of the military and go back to communities with good support systems and some don’t,†said Hector Barajas, 38, one of several veterans who lives in the Deported Veterans Support House, a modest building in the Otay Centenario neighborhood on the east side of Tijuana. “Many of the men being deported served in Vietnam and didn’t get the treatment that we’re supposed to get.â€
Reminders of their service and evidence of their patriotism adorn the walls of the home known as “The Bunker.†Draped in flags, decorated with military memorabilia and photos, the 1,000-square-foot, three-room building is a step up from the cramped apartment Barajas used to share with fellow “banished veterans.†At any given time, there are half a dozen or more men living in the home, just 3 miles from the San Ysidro border crossing.
Although Barajas has become the patron saint of deported veterans, his journey to The Bunker is not unique. He moved to the U.S. as a 7-year-old, and became a legal resident through his parents. When he was old enough, he joined the U.S. Army, landing in the fabled 82nd Airborne Division where ....
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
It’s unbelievable that vets are deported over stuff like this. We ought to do like the Romans - automatic citizenship upon honorable discharge.
By all means, punish them. But throwing a veteran out of the country for a bar fight is just ridiculous to me.
I agree.
It's not much of an incentive. They're allowed to obtain citizenship after 1 year of legal residency (after getting their green cards) instead of the normal 5. Those who grew up stateside have probably been in-country for at least 5. But citizenship through military service comes with a clawback provision that doesn't exist for its civilian counterpart:
A person who obtains U.S. citizenship through his or her military service and separates from the military under “other than honorable conditions†before completing five years of honorable service may have his or her citizenship revoked.
Waiting to hear the evidence... doesn’t pass the smell test.
These guys had green cards when they went into the service. If they had applied for citizenship when they had the chance they probably would have become citizens and not have been deported.
I originally heard this story on National People’s Radio.
This is the Ministry of Propaganda using the group that conservatives would be most sympathetic towards to advance amnesty.
The Cheap Labor Express is relentless
If Clinton could pardon a major Democrat Party crook like Marc Rich and over a dozen Puerto Rican “nationalist” attempted murder gunmen and women, and Obama pardoned Marxist psychopaths from the FALN, a Cuban-aided communist terrorist group in Puerto Rico, then the least a new Republican president can do is to order a review of the records of these American Armed Forces veterans on an individual basis.
The second American soldier I met in Vietnam (the first was a chaplain who gave a friend and myself a lift to the US Embassy), was a Honduran citizen who enlisted in the Army in ORDER TO GET US CITIZENSHIP. He was putting his life on the line for something very special.
A Military Advisor I met in Pleiku City was a Hungarian refugee from the uprising of 1956. He told us that he joined the military to fight the communists as a way of paying back the US for giving him freedom and a home.
Maybe I’m getting old and sentimental, but I think that conservatives should take a second look at people who committed minor or lesser crimes, esp. if they were young or in the military/combat, and see if they should have their rights restored.
Let’s take this issue of “restorative justice” away from the Left who just want to put dangerous criminals back on the street as part of the old Marxist concept of using the criminal class (esp. former convicts) as the shocktroops of the revolution, i.e. the “lumpenproletariat”.
Even W.E. B. DuBois recognized this tactic when he warned fellow Negroes (his words) to avoid being recruited for the CPUSA because all the Party wanted to do with them was to use them as “cannonfodder” for the revolution.
[This information can be found within the massive FBI files on DuBois that is online at their electronic/FOIA Library].
They did not have to join the service to get citizenship. They did not have to join the service to legally stay in the country - they were legal permanent residents, as all enlistees must be. They were just bad at one of the routine chores many legal immigrants take for granted - applying for citizenship. I think they should get a mulligan for taking on the trials of military service.
This is just not right.
But as a green card-holding legal alien, it wasn't something he needed to do to get citizenship - he was automatically eligible after 5 years of residence. Whether or not he chose to become a citizen, he could have lived legally stateside for the rest of his life without lifting a finger in the direction of military service. That he rallied to the colors showed a love of (his adopted) country that most natural born Americans never display through their actions.
This! Boots is right.
Way too many details/facts missing for people to go all outraged.
Does anyone really think a vet was deported simply because a car he was driving had a firearm go off?
This! Boots is right.
Way too many details/facts missing for people to go all outraged.
Does anyone really think a vet was deported simply because a car he was driving had a firearm go off?
This! Boots is right.
Way too many details/facts missing for people to go all outraged.
Does anyone really think a vet was deported simply because a car he was driving had a firearm go off?
Remember that green-card holders were subject to the draft.
This! Boots is right.
Way too many details/facts missing for people to go all outraged.
Does anyone really think a vet was deported simply because a car he was driving had a firearm go off?
They still are required to register with the draft board. Unlike most Americans, they can return to their home countries, if their number comes up. When the guy learned he was about to be deployed into a combat zone, he could have split.
You take an oath, not a vow. No need to gay it up.
And yes, if you served this country honorably you should become a citizen upon honorable discharge.
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