Julio Torres, a US Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, proudly bears tattoos of the American flag and Marine Corps insignia, symbols of his dedication to the country he calls home.
Following his deployment, the 44-year-old grappled with post-traumatic stress syndrome, drug addiction, and a related criminal charge. He has since found a new purpose as a pastor, preaching freedom to those facing similar struggles.
Yet, his East Texas community now feels more like a prison than the land of the free. Mr Torres, born in Mexico and having migrated legally to the US at five, holds a green card and a distinguished US military record.
Despite this, he was detained by immigration authorities last year under the Biden administration.
As Donald Trump advocates a mass deportation agenda and an aggressive ramp-up of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement raids, Mr Torres fears further trouble, remaining close to home.
“Do I want to leave this nation? No. I want to serve it. I want to continue to serve my community,” Torres told The Associated Press.
“It breaks my heart that I fought for this nation to raise my children in this nation, and now I have to pull my children out of this nation if I get deported. Then what did I fight for?”
Torres is not alone. There are well over 100,000 military veterans living in the US who do not have citizenship, according to estimates in recent years by the Congressional Research Service.
Despite military recruiters frequently describing service as a fast-track to citizenship for soldiers and their family members, the Trump administration’s immigration agenda is putting them at renewed risk of deportation.
Democrats in Congress have begun to raise alarm at the recent spate of military veterans who have either been forced out of the country or had family members detained by ICE.
A bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Mark Takano, a California Democrat, aims to address that by requiring the Department of Homeland Security to identify whether immigrants are US military veterans and provide them with an opportunity to apply for lawful immigration status.
The legislation, which is also being supported by Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida and the delegate for American Samoa, Amata Coleman Radewagen, would also extend the deadline and make it easier for military members to apply for citizenship.
“It’s very important for Americans to understand the contributions of noncitizens to our national security," Takano told the AP. “They’re often posed as threats to our personal safety, but this is a story about how they play an essential role — tremendous numbers of our current military forces are noncitizens.”
From veterans' honors to deportation threats
Torres remembers anger welling up as he was taken to an immigration detention center in Texas last year after he was stopped by Customs and Border Protection agents at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport.
He was trying to re-enter the country after a trip to visit relatives in Mexico. While Torres had a green card, the criminal charges from 10 years ago for drug possession violated the terms of his permanent residency.
“I was angry that I served a nation that now did not want me. I was angry that I served a nation that broke me, and after they broke me, they wanted to just throw me away,” he said, then added, “I’m still angry that I don’t have the liberty to go to the store with my kids because I’m afraid of ICE stopping me and arresting me.”
While Torres was unsure why he was released after five days in detention, ICE had a policy at the time of considering US military service when deciding whether to take immigration enforcement action. The Trump administration has issued new policy memos to do away with that kind of discretion.
Fear of being deported has worsened the symptoms of PTSD for Torres. He has night terrors. He cries when he is out of earshot of his wife and children, then tries to convince them he is doing ok.
He fears that if he is deported to Mexico, he would be under threat from cartels because he is a veteran and minister.
Other veterans who have been deported say that those kinds of threats are real. David Bariu was deported to Kenya in 2008 after he had served in the Army and Air Force Reserve because an army recruiter had enlisted him while he was in the US on a student visa — an offense for which the recruiter was eventually court-martialed.
Bariu said that he struggled with depression after being held in detention for one year, then being deported to Kenya where he struggled to find work. Living in an area where the Al-Shabaab terrorist group was active, Bariu did not want to tell anyone he had served in the US military.
“I didn't want to risk putting my life into danger,” he said, adding, “The US government is deporting veterans to hostile environments.”
Eventually, Bariu was able to apply for US citizenship under a program set up under the Biden administration for deported veterans. He moved back to the US and helps run an organisation to support other deported veterans called the Deported Black Veterans of America.
The group holds weekly Zoom meetings with deported veterans around the world, connecting them with immigration lawyers, advising them how to access benefits due to them for their military service and generally encourage each other.
The naturalisation process for service members
Immigrants with lawful permanent residency have long been able to gain US citizenship through military service, but actually completing the process for naturalization can be difficult, especially when service members are moving between military bases or stationed overseas.
Takano's bill would allow service members to apply for citizenship during their basic training and establish a review process for immigration removal proceedings.
Other Democrats in this Congress have put forward proposals to quickly extend green cards to the family members of service members.
However, Trump during his first term made several moves to make it more difficult to gain citizenship, including adding mandatory wait times for service members to apply for citizenship and closing US immigration offices overseas and at several military bases.
A federal judge ruled that the administration could not enact the mandatory wait times, but now that Trump is president again, his administration has tried to once again appeal that ruling.
The Department of Homeland Security has also stood by its actions when veterans have been forced to leave the country, saying it is enforcing the law.
Republican leaders in Congress have so far shown no willingness to challenge Trump's immigration policies. Still, Torres is hoping that the push to have Congress take up the issue can avoid the toxic politics of immigration and instead be cast as a veterans' issue, where there is sometimes bipartisan agreement.
“This is about a veteran,” he said, then added, “I love my nation. And yes, even though this nation at this moment in time does not consider me part of this nation, I consider this to be my nation. I consider this my homeland.”
