U.S. military veteran Miguel Perez, Jr. spent his 40th birthday in Mexico, not because it was a trip of his own choosing, but because he was deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last month. Perez had been detained since 2016, after getting his green card revoked over a nonviolent drug conviction. Perez “said that what he saw and experienced in Afghanistan sent his life off the rails,” leading him to struggle with PTSD and addiction. He needed help.
Instead, the Trump administration deported him, “homeless and penniless in a dangerous place, without food or money or clothes or needed medications,” said Rev. Emma Lozano, one of his advocates. “This is an intolerable way to treat a man who fought bravely for this nation”:
Perez was deported last month after a year-and-a-half-long battle with the immigration court system. He said he was left in Matamoros, Mexico, a border city across the bridge from Brownsville, Texas, without money or clothes. Perez says he was given a few doses of Prozac and two other medications that he takes to treat his PTSD. A fellow veteran traveled from Chicago to Matamoros to help Perez get to Tijuana, where he has been living since.
Perez, Jr. spent his birthday there and called it “great” because he was “free” from detention. But he misses Chicago, his home. “I’m still fighting to get back home,” he told Latino USA. “My family, friends and my community are there.”
Following his deportation, the Chicago Tribune reported that “Perez is one of many veterans, some of whom sustained injuries and emotional trauma during combat, who have been decorated for service, then confronted with the possibility of deportation after committing a crime”:
As with many others, Perez mistakenly thought he became a U.S. citizen when he took an oath to protect the nation. He discovered that was not the case when he was summoned to immigration court shortly before his release from a state penitentiary.
Perez, Jr. is in no way an isolated incident. Over 230 U.S. veterans are estimated to have been deported after serving their country, including Hector Barajas in 2004, who also struggled with addiction. But while Barajas, who established a support house for deported vets, won his legal fight to return to the U.S. and be sworn in as a citizen this month, Perez, Jr. is still waiting for his good news:
He has been living in the house of another veteran who is based in San Diego and owns a second house in Tijuana. Yet, that’s only a temporary fix—the house where he is staying is usually rented out. He’s been looking for an apartment in a safe part of the city. Perez said he even has a lead on an apartment, but job prospects are dim. He is looking for work at a call center, where the salary is low. Throughout all of this, he said he’s also very concerned about having access to mental health services.
The bare minimum of medications he was given as he was deported are gone, and he “has been experiencing withdrawals,” according to Latino USA. “I was skipping doses so that I could stretch the medication,” he said, “adding that his family and supporters in Chicago were trying to find a way to help him get the medication he needs”:
Despite all, Perez said he wants to continue fighting to someday go back to the city he calls home. But while that happens, he’s concentrating on working with other veterans to make this issue becomes more visible for other Americans.
“I take it one day at a time,” he said. “I concentrate on helping out other [deported] veterans and giving them words of hope.”