US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico
Source: CNN
A US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.
The deportation follows an earlier decision by US authorities to deny Miguel Perez's citizenship application because of a felony drug conviction, despite his service and the PTSD he says it caused.
Perez, 39, was escorted across the US-Mexico border from Texas and handed over to Mexican authorities Friday, ICE said in a statement.
Perez, his family and supporters, who include Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, had argued that his wartime service to the country had earned him the right to stay in the United States and to receive mental health treatment for the PTSD and substance abuse.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/25/us/us-veteran-deported-to-mexico/index.html
50 Shades Of Blue
(9,777 posts)Leghorn21
(13,520 posts)This case is a tragic example of what can happen when national immigration policies are based more in hate than on logic and ICE doesn't feel accountable to anyone," Duckworth said in a statement following reports of Perez's deportation. "At the very least, Miguel should have been able to exhaust all of his legal options before being rushed out of the country under a shroud of secrecy."
Volaris
(10,260 posts)the MOMENT he got off the plane that brought him back from an American Combat Zone. His Commanding Officer should have been there with that shit in one hand, and a VA card and a Thank You in the other.
This kid got shot at for us.
Fuck ICE; this is bullshit.
Moostache
(9,895 posts)HERE is your fucking answer douche bag.
This kind of slavish devotion to hatred and ideology over and above compassion and common sense is simply par for the course for those people and it is bringing America down to levels not seen globally for many decades.
I LOVE America the idea and all that it stands for...
I LOATHE America the vision of the GOP and the current trajectory it is on...
Jake Stern
(3,145 posts)Makes it sound like cops found a gram of blow in his pocket during a traffic stop.
He was TRAFFICKING goodly quantities of cocaine.
Thanks to Mr. Perez for his service but that doesn't outweigh the fact that he was dealing hard drugs.
groundloop
(11,488 posts)"Makes it sound like cops found a gram of blow in his pocket during a traffic stop" makes it sound like speculation on your part.
I'd like to hear some facts and not just conjecture.
neohippie
(1,142 posts)It's a complicated case. Perez has said that what he saw and experienced in Afghanistan sent his life off the rails, leading to heavy drinking, a drug addiction and ultimately to his felony conviction.
"After the second tour, there was more alcohol and that was also when I tried some drugs," Perez said last month. "But the addiction really started after I got back to Chicago, when I got back home, because I did not feel very sociable."
In 2010, he was convicted in Cook County, Illinois, on charges related to delivering more than 2 pounds of cocaine to an undercover officer. He was sentenced to 15 years and his green card was revoked. He had served half his sentence when ICE began deportation proceedings. He had been in the agency's custody since 2016.
Perez has said he was surprised to be in ICE detention and mistakenly believed that enlisting in the Army would automatically give him US citizenship, according to his lawyer, Chris Bergin. His retroactive application for citizenship was denied earlier this month. While there are provisions for expediting troops' naturalization process, a main requirement is that the applicant demonstrate "good moral character," and the drug conviction was enough to sway the decision against his application, Bergin said.
LanternWaste
(37,748 posts)"Thanks to Mr. Perez for his service but that doesn't outweigh the fact that he was suffering an addictions to hard drugs..."
Six of one, half a dozen of the other... but I readily understand how the latter may not validate your bias. I get it though, it's fun to pretend we have absolute knowledge of what outweighs what-- we get to look more clever than reality may otherwise allow.
Jake Stern
(3,145 posts)Nice try though
otchmoson
(67 posts)If he served, he's entitled to the benefits earned (and promised by the U.S. government.) How can he receive treatment at VA hospitals when he is no longer in the country (not by choice)? Can he use G.I. bill to purchase a home in Mexico? How about PX/base privileges and educational support?
Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)By CHRISTINE HAUSER
MARCH 26, 2018
A United States Army veteran who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan was deported to Mexico after his application for citizenship was denied because of a felony drug conviction, his lawyer and immigration officials said.
Miguel Perez-Montes, 39, was flown on Friday from Gary, Ind., to Brownsville, Tex., where he was escorted across the border to Mexico, Nicole Alberico, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Mr. Perez-Montes, who came to the United States legally when he was 8 years old, was convicted in 2010 for delivering cocaine to an undercover officer, a felony drug charge, and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was placed into removal proceedings in 2012, while behind bars in Illinois, and had been in ICE custody since Sept. 23, 2016, Ms. Alberico said.
Mr. Perez-Montess case rose to prominence after Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and an Iraq war veteran, appealed to the Department of Homeland Security on Friday to stay his deportation and review his case.
This is a deplorable way to treat a veteran who risked his life in combat for our nation, she wrote in a letter to the secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Nielsen.
More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/us/army-veteran-deported.html
Judi Lynn
(160,219 posts)Manya Brachear Pashman
Chicago Tribune
MARCH 26, 2018 3:10 PM
Ending a 16-month quest to stay in a country where he was raised and that he fought to defend, Miguel Perez Jr., a veteran who held a green card, has been deported to Mexico, where he has not lived since childhood.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Sunday that Perez boarded an ICE Air Operations flight at Gary International Airport and was flown to Brownsville, Texas. There, ICE officers escorted Perez across the U.S.-Mexico border and turned him over to Mexican authorities.
Perez was deported without the customary warning and opportunity to say goodbye to his family. He had no money or clothes and was left in a border town on the U.S. travel warning list, advocates said. His family will fly to Mexico on Monday to help him gather resources and ensure his safety.
This is an intolerable way to treat a man who fought bravely for this nation, said Emma Lozano, an advocate who has been fighting Perezs case. They have left him homeless and penniless in a dangerous place, without food or money or clothes or needed medications.
More:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-green-card-veteran-miguel-perez-mexico-20180326-story.html
humbled_opinion
(4,423 posts)has his way he would be facing the death penalty.