US Army veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico

[spanone]

(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.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/25/us/us-veteran-deported-to-mexico/index.html

[imanamerican63]

1. This a black eye for America!

I would hate to see what they would have to those who fought in every war before Afghanistan? We would not been as safe without these true Americans!

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Can we get anymore despicable?

[spanone]

3. knowing trump, i'm convinced we can.

[Lee-Lee]

4. I have followed this story a good bit and still cant figure the whole thing out.

I will preface this saying I was in Afghanistan at the same period he was, and I had one of the Soldiers assigned to me in that period get her citizenship, so I know the process.

The Army was very, very aggressive and proactive during that time with getting people sworn in. Every unit had among their weekly reporting requirements a mandate to list how many non-citizens they had and where they were in the process of getting sworn in or if they were declining to take the opportunity. They made the paperwork very easy and they had State Department officials available every month to do the ceremony, including flying them to remote FOBs.

There is no way anyone there during that period who wanted citizenship would have not gotten it had they done the small amount of work.

Likewise, there is no was he “didn’t know” he wasn’t a citizen. He knew it wasn’t automatic. That would have been explained to him on both deployments when he was offered the chance to get his citizenship.

Now, why did he not do it? I don’t know. I suspect he figured he would do it later since he figured he had lots of time left in his enlistment.

However he never served his full enlistment. He failed a drug test and was processed for removal from the Army. Typically a first time failure during that period didn’t lead to discharge but a referral to treatment unless the Soldier was one that the command didn’t see was worth the effort to retain.

So he had opportunities to get his citizenship and for whatever reason didn’t. Then his opportunity was cut off earlier than he likely expected because he couldn’t follow the rules and got kicked out of the Army at a time when it was harder than most to get kicked out.

So while his story sucks for him, he bears responsibility for some of his circumstances.

[DFW]

5. The only thing left to see

I'll bet the Trump defense department would court martial for desertion someone plucked out of his unit to be deported to Mexico.

For that matter, what happens when there's an armed showdown of a commanding officer ordering his men to draw guns on ICE goons sent to remove and deport soldiers from his unit that have bravely served in combat?