Legislation to be reintroduced to address deportation of veterans

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI)--More than 1.5 million Hispanic and Latino service members have served our country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Some of those veterans have been deported despite lawmakers' efforts to fix that.

This fall, a bill aimed at helping deported veterans will be reintroduced, but in the meantime, a Tijuana-based organization is providing assistance to these individuals.

“I never tried to come illegally," said Jose Cardenas, U.S. Army and National Guard Veteran. "I said, if I’m going to come up here, it’s going to be legally."

Cardenas utilized the services at the Unified U.S. Deported Veteran Resource Center while he was separated from the country he served for 13 years.

“They could’ve helped me, and they didn’t. They just let me go," said Cardenas. Cardenas was deported back to Mexico in 2009.

“I went to Lincoln High School. I went to Godfrey Junior High and Sherman Elementary," said Cardenas.

He said he moved to San Diego when he was 7 years old after receiving a green card.

“Out of high school, they sent me a letter saying that I had to show up in LA for a physical," Cardenas explained. "When I was out there, I thought I was coming back, but they put me on a bus and they sent me all the way to Fort Ork, California.”

Cardenas was drafted during the Vietnam War, but didn’t have to travel overseas. He spent most of his time in training and then training cadets.

He served for four years, during which time he got married and started a family.

“What I did-I went to school. It was hard when you have a kid and a wife. It was hard to get a job," he said.

He eventually got a job as a sheet metal worker, but he said he got hurt and was laid off.

Later, his son died, and he found himself struggling.

“I had problems with my head. I got into drugs and stuff," he said.

That ultimately led to his deportation.

"Deported veteran are words that do not go with each other. They don’t make sense. Deported veteran? They don’t go along," said Robert Vivar, United U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center.

Vivar runs the Unified U.S. Deported Veteran Resource Center in Tijuana. He’s worked with deported veterans, like Cardenas, for more than a decade.

“The biggest factor of them getting deported is the struggle to integrate back into civilian life after military service," said Vivar.

Title 8 immigration law creates a path to naturalization for servicemembers who serve for at least a year in the military and leave on good terms.

Still, Vivar said, for many reasons, such as not following through with paperwork due to factors like deployment, some individuals don't become naturalized citizens.

Since 2016, at least a handful of bills have been introduced to help veterans facing deportation.

“Some good [and] some not so good. I personally believe the best one so far is one a few years ago actually made it out of the house of representatives-the veteran service and recognition act. It stalled out in the Senate because of the lack of bipartisan support," said Vivar.

That bill was introduced in 2022.

The bill would’ve created a path to citizenship for recruits going through boot camp, allowing them to become citizens by the time they graduated. Additionally, it would’ve established a committee to review the cases of deported veterans, intending to repatriate them.

He estimates over 45,000 service members are immigrants and says they are at risk of deportation.

“Work should be done together from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of the VA to consider it a veteran issue, not an immigration issue, and find a solution as a veteran issue," said Vivar.

This fall, California Congressman Mark Takano's office says he plans to reintroduce the Veterans Service Recognition Act.

There is no official count of the number of deported veterans, but Vivar estimates there are about 500 that he and other organizations know of.

Some, like Cardenas, have been able to return to the U.S. to access the benefits they earned while serving.

“When I came in—I think it was a couple of weeks…I had to go to the emergency room because I had a heart attack, and when I was there, they told me, ‘you’re not coming out,’ said Cardenas. "I was in the VA hospital. I told them, ‘Why?' They said, ‘You have two choices: do the surgery or die. I said, ‘That’s not a choice.'"

He underwent open-heart surgery.

He says he was able to return to San Diego before his heart attack in 2022 because he secured documentation about his heart issues, and a judge granted his return.

While organizations like United U.S. Deported Veterans wait for a solution, Cardenas leaves other veterans impacted by their immigration status with advice.

“Be sure that they do what they are supposed to do. Don’t make any bad moves, you know, because that will kick you out. Go back to your new life, not the old life. Just go along with the government-whatever they tell you to do, do it," said Cardenas.

Earlier this summer, lawmakers asked federal agencies for those numbers — but so far, there’s been no official count.