The Biden administration has announced new online resources for noncitizen immigrant service members and their loved ones, including a portal for deported veterans who need assistance returning back home to the United States. The initiative is a multipronged effort partnering the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Veteran’s Affairs, and Defense.
“These new resources are just the first step to help support noncitizen service members and their families who have made tremendous sacrifices for our country,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. “We are committed to identifying previously removed veterans to ensure they are able to obtain VA benefits, access COVID-19 vaccines, and return to the United States as appropriate.”
The administration said that the ImmVets site will serve as a “one-stop resource center” that consolidates items from across various departments, “so noncitizen service members, veterans, and their families are able to easily find any needed forms and resources.”
Importantly, the site will feature a portal for deported veterans “to get in touch with the Department for assistance with any questions or issues they may have as they seek assistance in returning to the United States or accessing their VA benefits.”
“Veterans qualify for VA benefits based on their service to our country and never on their immigration status,” said Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough. “We are proud to work with our partners at DHS and DoD to honor the service of immigrant and noncitizen Veterans by ensuring that they have access to information about the care and services available to them.”
The administration said that dozens of veterans have already accessed services through the initiative, “and several individuals have been able to return to the U.S. DHS offices and agencies continue to actively review policies for individuals with military association to determine how to best meet the commitments made in this initiative.”
The Biden administration last summer formally announced efforts to bring back deported veterans (as well deported family members). Its unknown exactly how many veterans have been deported because the federal government has failed to properly track it, but some estimates vary into the hundreds. Deported veterans have also received permission to cross into the U.S. to access the COVID-19 vaccine.
Robert Vivar has been among the deported military family members to have recently come back home to the U.S. for good, returning on Veterans Day 2021.
“Despite not being a veteran himself, Robert has worked tirelessly to repatriate deported veterans and provide them with the tools and information they need to survive in Mexico—a country the majority of them barely know,” ImmDef wrote in a thread at the time. “As we welcome Robert home, we thank him for all his dedication to bettering the lives of hundreds of migrants, deportees, and local communities in Tijuana and throughout the border regions of Mexico.”
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