Afghanistan War Veterans Deportation Is a Shocking Betrayal, Senator Says

[Judi Lynn]

Afghanistan War Veteran’s Deportation Is a ‘Shocking Betrayal,’ Senator Says
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-Montes’s 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]

1. Afghan war vet deported to Mexico and left 'homeless and penniless,' his Chicago family says

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 Perez’s 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

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. He is a better person, drug case and all, then any 5000 cons combined