Demand #6: Return and Protect Deported Veterans
Return, Protect and Naturalize Deported Veterans; Ensure Mandated Reporting
As our newest demand, 50501 Veterans calls for:
The return of potentially thousands of immigrant Veterans who have been unjustly deported to other countries without due process.
Pass into law the Veteran Service Recognition Act to improve military procedures to naturalize and protect immigrant service members and their immediate family members.
Also pass into law the Strengthening Citizenship Services for Veterans Act to help those already deported to receive naturalization services.
Ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) complies with mandated reporting of veteran deportations.
Enrich and Strengthen Our Nation
Immigrants have served nobly in the United States military since our nation’s founding. Military service has been an honorable way for immigrants to earn citizenship, integrate into American society and become part of the “melting pot” that continues to enrich and strengthen our nation.
Many Veterans and current Active Duty troops selflessly served even before becoming naturalized citizens. Of the more than 3,400 Medals of Honor awarded since the Civil War, 22% have gone to immigrants.
In the 21st century, immigrants continue to serve honorably in all branches of the military. They provide valuable language and cultural expertise in addition to their assigned jobs, skillfully navigating a sometimes foreign-seeming military culture.
That includes Marlon Parris, a twice-deployed Iraq War Army Veteran. The father of seven, who lived in this country legally for 30 years, was one of the first Veterans picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after President Trump’s inauguration in January.
ICE previously told Parris he would be allowed to stay in the country despite a drug offense for which he served time, since the crime was nonviolent. However, when he returned from a vacation overseas in 2023, his Green Card was taken away, despite Parris showing officials a “letter of no interest” from ICE confirming he had been allowed to stay in the U.S.
Parris was still contesting that decision on January 22nd, when he was taken away by ICE officials. Although sympathetic to the situation Parris found himself in, Immigration Judge Frank Travieso ruled in May that the government provided enough evidence for Parris to be deported. His lawyer is appealing while Parris sits in an immigration prison in Florence, AZ.
Lack of Transparency in ICE Reporting
Like Parris, an estimated 94,000 veterans do not have U.S. citizenship, leaving them vulnerable to detention and deportation, especially as the Trump Administrations pushes ICE to accelerate deportations throughout the country. Organizations such as Global Refuge and the Migration Policy Institute report hundreds of cases of deported veterans – a number believed to be grossly underestimated due to a lack of transparency in ICE reporting.
The National Institutes of Health reports that honorably-discharged veterans who have been deported are often denied access to the VA healthcare to which they are entitled – particularly for illnesses and injuries incurred during military service, such as toxic exposure and PTSD. If these veterans are deported to a country not of their origin, they face other barriers as well – especially language and cultural barriers.
Leave No Veteran Behind
50501 Veterans leaves no veteran behind. Like all our members, these deported Veterans took an oath to defend all enemies of the United States, foreign and domestic. Unfathomably, they are trapped in the middle of the xenophobia that runs wild – tragically – in this country of immigrants.