While deported military veteran Hector Barajas-Varela won his fight back home to the United States in 2018, his wife, Yolanda Varona, was forced to stay behind. Both deported by the U.S. in the more than a decade ago, they’d met and fallen in love in Mexico. They’d remained separated until this month, when she was allowed to return by the Biden administration.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that Varona was so shocked to find out that her request for humanitarian parole had been granted, that she thought she was maybe dreaming. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said in the report. “The first thing I did was go back to sleep. I wanted to fall asleep so I could wake up and open my phone again and read that it was true.”
RELATED STORY: Deported U.S. veteran Hector Barajas-Varela returns home to be sworn in as a U.S. citizen
“Varona was deported Jan. 1, 2011, after she returned into the country through the Tecate port of entry,” The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. “When officers ran her information, they discovered she had been living in the country on a tourist visa, she said.” In Mexico, she ran a support group for deported moms, like herself.
It was in Mexico where she met Barajas-Varela, who ran “The Bunker,” a support group for deported veterans. Not only is it deeply shameful that such a support group has to exist, the federal government isn’t even sure how many veterans it has deported, with estimates ranging from 92 veterans to 230 veterans. Instead of being able to get the mental health care he needed, Barajas-Varela was deported following a criminal conviction.
While a full pardon from former California Gov. Jerry Brown helped secure Barajas-Varela’s return home in 2018, Varona had to remain behind, where she continued advocating for deported moms. “She acknowledged that for a time she had lost hope that she would one day return to her family,” the report said.
But she is now home, approved as a military spouse under the Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative, The San Diego Union-Tribune said. “It was like being born again,” she said in the report.
The Biden administration has taken steps as part of its official effort to return deported veterans and family members, including a resource center that helps applicants get in touch with the federal government. Robert Vivar, a military father and advocate for deported veterans, returned on Veterans Day 2021. Alejandra Juarez, a military spouse cruelly deported despite outcries from legislators and advocates in 2018, returned at around the same time.
This week, the administration announced 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 STORIES:
'The moment I’ve been waiting for': Military spouse deported by previous admin to return home
'Dad, welcome back': Advocate for deported veterans wins his own fight to return to the U.S.
Biden admin announces resource center for deported veterans seeking to return home to U.S.