U.S. Army veterans Mauricio Hernandez Mata and Leonel Contreras are finally back home. Both are among the deported veterans who have been brought back to the U.S. under a Biden administration initiative returning “unjustly removed” immigrant Americans who served their country but who were then exiled following oftentimes tragic circumstances.
Hernandez Mata suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Afghanistan, which “eventually led to getting in trouble with the law,” the Associated Press (AP) reported. He was deported to Mexico, where he lived for a decade until coming back home last year under the Biden administration. But that wasn’t the end of his and Contreras’ stories. Both were also sworn in as U.S. citizens this month.
RELATED STORY: 'Crying over happiness': Deported military veteran returns home to U.S. after more than two decades
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“After my deportation, yeah, I never thought this day would come,” Hernandez told the AP. He received his naturalization certificate during a special ceremony in San Diego on Feb. 8. “It’s definitely been a long road. I’m glad that we were given a second chance as anybody that is either American-born or fought for America should have.”
Leonel Contreras enlisted in the U.S. military when he was just 17. Now 63, he also received his naturalization certificate after returning from Mexico following his deportation a decade ago. He was swept up by federal agents at the barbershop where he worked.
While immigrant service members are eligible for an expedited path to U.S. citizenship, it is not automatic, something many may not know. They can be subject to deportation following certain criminal convictions, even in cases where mental and physical health issues are developed as a result of their military service. Because of sloppy record-keeping by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), it’s unknown “exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed,” the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said in a 2019 report.
Contreras “continued to work in Tijuana as a barber and found work because of his English at call centers helping answer questions from customers of U.S. companies. But it was not easy,” the AP said. Contreras became a grandfather while he was deported. He said he now dreams of doing as something as simple as going to the grocery store without fear of looking over his shoulder. He wants to travel, including to the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore.
“I’ve always been an American, the difference is now I’m an American citizen and I have all the rights that any American born citizen has,” Hernandez said in the report. “And it was important to me to have those rights just to prove the point, the point being that anybody that’s willing to lay down their life, their sanity, and give everything that they hold dear for American freedom should be eventually at one point in their lives considered a U.S. citizen.” The AP reports that attendees at the naturalization ceremony cheered following the official oaths of citizenship.
Other deported veterans returned by the Biden administration include Luis, who was deported to Nicaragua more than two decades ago. The veteran, who used only his first name to protect his family, was sworn in as a U.S. citizen in March 2022. While deported, he struggled to maintain a livelihood due to his undiagnosed PTSD. He eventually moved to Mexico, where he found support from Brotherhood of Deported Veterans, one of the grassroots organizations serving deported vets.
“When Luis first contacted me, he told me it was hard for him to get around,” founder Juan Martinez told NBC News last year. “I didn’t want to see him dying here. He didn’t deserve to get back to the U.S. in a coffin.”
Brotherhood of Deported Veterans began helping him with paperwork, and he was eventually connected to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. In March, he would finally return home to the U.S. “I’ve cried over sadness before and problems I had in my life, but crying over happiness? That was the first time," Luis told NBC News about that day.
In one of their very last legislative acts in the last Congress, House Democrats passed The Veteran Service Recognition Act, which would create an easier naturalization process for active service members and give some deported veterans a chance to return home to the U.S. All 208 votes opposing U.S. military service members were from Republicans. Only Brian Fitzpatrick, María Elvira Salazar, and former lawmaker Adam Kinzinger joined Democrats in protecting our service members.
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