The Biden administration has said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) must “consider” U.S. military service when looking at whether or not it will detain someone. It is simply reprehensible that someone who put their life at risk in service of their country could then be deported by it, so this policy represents a major step forward.
“This shouldn't be news, but in a post-Trumpian world, an effort to not deport veterans is news,” tweeted America’s Voice communications director Douglas Rivlin.
RELATED STORY: ICE has no idea exactly how many veterans it has deported, watchdog report finds
The Biden administration said that the policy, announced this week, “will provide agency-wide guidance to ensure service in the U.S. military by a noncitizen or their immediate family members is taken into consideration when deciding whether to take civil immigration enforcement actions against them and what enforcement action to take, if any.”
The new policy officially formalizes the practice of recognizing “U.S. military service as a mitigating factor,” a statement continued. The non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a 2019 report that while ICE has policies in place that it’s supposed to follow when it decides to take the oh-so-patriotic action to arrest a military veteran, it has not followed them. Nor does ICE know exactly how many veterans it has deported because the agency doesn’t properly track it, the GAO also said.
Under the new policy, ICE is instructed to consider factors including “claims of post-traumatic stress disorder” as a result of military service. Miguel Pérez Jr. was diagnosed with PTSD after serving in Afghanistan. “Those struggles led to a drug-related conviction that landed him in state prison for seven years,” NPR reported. He was deported by the previous administration. Following a pardon from Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker and continued efforts by advocates, Pérez Jr. won his U.S. citizenship in 2019.
The Biden administration last summer formally announced a plan to bring back deported veterans, as well as deported family members. The Washington Post reported the administration’s effort could return “hundreds, possibly thousands, of deported veterans and their immediate family members.” Due to the government’s carelessness, it’s unknown exactly how many military veterans have been deported after serving their country. Estimates range from 92 veterans to 230 veterans. It’s deeply shameful that we deport service members. It’s deeply shameful we don’t even bother to track it.
It’s now critical to ensure this policy is followed. Just like ICE has done lots of things it’s not supposed to do, it doesn’t do a lot of the things it is supposed to do, like the GAO report pointed out. Tae Johnson, ICE’s acting director and a holdover from the previous administration, is named in a new Washington Post report detailing how “U.S. officials slowed family reunifications.” ICE has now gone without a Senate-confirmed director for five years, after the Biden administration’s nomination expired. The president resubmitted the nomination for Texas sheriff Ed Gonzalez in January.
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