The fiancee of a Jamaican-born, decorated US army veteran who is now facing deportation under the Trump administration says she hopes his story might inspire legislative action to restore immigration protections for former military members.
“If you served this country, you deserve a chance to stay in this country,” said April Watkins, who is engaged to Godfrey Wade, one of tens of thousands who have been put in immigration detention under Donald Trump’s second presidency. “That is the hope for not only him but for any veteran who sits in a detention center. Look at their service that they gave this country and take that into consideration.”
Wade, a grandfather and US army veteran, was arrested for driving without a license in September and was then taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal agency tasked with carrying out Trump’s “mass deportation” program, local outlet KENS5 reported. He has been in ICE detention since.
Wade’s case is emblematic of a rising number of non-US citizen military veterans swept up by ICE under Trump’s immigration policies. The Biden administration had previously issued an ICE directive that helped protect non-citizen veterans and also issued an executive order that later created an initiative to help return deported veterans and their families.
The Trump administration rescinded the ICE directive after his second presidency began in January.
Non-citizens are eligible to join the US military. Wade, 65, came to the US from Jamaica at 15 years old, eventually joined the army and earned commendations for wartime service as well as good conduct, as KENS5 reported.
He later received multiple college degrees and worked multiple jobs throughout his time in the US. He was working at a cafe when he was detained by ICE, KENS5 reports.
Wade was being held inside the Stewart detention center, an immigration jail in Lumpkin, Georgia. The facility, one of the largest in the country, is run by the private prison company CoreCivic.
For years, Stewart has faced grave accusations of rights abuses, including allegations of medical neglect. There have also been a series of deaths at the facility.
One of the most recent deaths was a suicide in June. That was the third suicide at Stewart in recent years.
Wade’s six children told KENS5 they have not been able to visit their father as often as they would like.
“Just the process of being able to see my dad is very traumatic,” one of Wade’s daughters told the outlet. “He doesn’t deserve this, what he’s experiencing right now.”
Wade’s family has been seeking assistance with their legal fight against his deportation on the GoFundMe platform.
“We are looking to minimize financial catastrophe during his absence,” the family’s GoFundMe says.
Members of Congress have been requesting further information from the Trump administration about its targeting of non-citizen veterans for deportation. In September, multiple House representatives launched a congressional investigation into the detention and deportation of non-citizen veterans.
Those members of Congress wrote a letter to top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, demanding more information on the number of veterans swept up by immigration agents.
A congressional letter from June estimated that 10,000 veterans or more have been deported. A 2022 report from the Migration Policy Institute said about 16 million US military veterans were born in another country.
The Guardian recently revealed that a number of US veterans may be swept up further by immigration officials, as the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) seeks to hand over to the Trump administration internal data of its non-citizen workforce. More than a quarter of the VA’s workforce is made up of veterans.
An internal memo shows the VA is urgently working on an internal report of non-citizens who are “employed or affiliated” with the department, potentially sweeping up thousands of people. Some details of the report will then be shared with other government agencies, including ICE.
