'Crying over happiness': Deported military veteran returns home to U.S. after more than two decades
Gabe Ortiz
Daily Kos Staff
Thursday September 01, 2022 · 12:57 PM CDT
The Biden administration last summer formally announced a plan to return deported U.S. military service members, as well as family members, as part of a rollback of the previous administration’s anti-immigrant policies. NBC News reports that among veterans to return home to the U.S. since the announcement is Luis, who was deported to Nicaragua more than two decades ago.
The veteran, who is using only his first name to protect his family, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in March 2022, completing a journey that began with him reaching out to a deported veterans Facebook group. “I’ve cried over sadness before and problems I had in my life, but crying over happiness? That was the first time," Luis, now 65, told NBC News about that day in March.
It’s deeply shameful we deport veterans; it's deeply shameful we don’t even have a full accounting of how many veterans have been deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after serving their country. NBC News reports that a request to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a number went unanswered. That’s likely because it doesn’t know the answer.
“Because ICE does not maintain complete electronic data on potentially removable veterans it encounters, ICE does not know exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed,” the non-partisan Government Accountability Office said in a 2019 report.
More:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/1/2120169/--Crying-over-happiness-Deported-military-veteran-returns-home-to-U-S-after-more-than-two-decades
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