3000 American Vets Are Being Deported by the Time Xmas Comes


As millions of Americans spend the holiday with their families, up to three thousand American Veterans will spend it alone in a foreign land. I am not referring to soldiers on duty in a remote outpost. Instead, the reference is to immigrant soldiers who fought for our country and who have been deported as personas-non-grata, some of them suffering life-long injuries. There are deported soldiers who fought in Viet Nam, Desert Storm, Korea, and all of the major conflicts.  Fabian Reolledo (right) is one of those unfortunates.
The Mexican youth who came to the U.S. at age 13, a Dream Student, found himself an Army Paratrooper at age 23. Some say you have to be crazy to jump out of a perfectly operating aircraft, so the army prefers paratroopers to volunteer. They found a ready and willing volunteer in Reolledo.
The Recruiter promised Reolledo he would convert his status from permanent resident to U.S. citizen as soon as he took the oath to serve and protect our nation. It is a common promise made to immigrant soldiers who make up 10% of our military.  It is a promise that isalways broken. What recruiters don't tell immigrant youth is the Oath to protect this great nation with one's life is not the same as the oath one takes as a citizen.  That is what the government says, anyway.  In retrospect, with a 4.3 grade point average, the high school graduate would have done better pursuing non-military options. 
As a paratrooper, Reolledo found, Jumping out of airplanes is dangerous business.  The youth dislocated his hip with a jump into the Normandy Drop Zone. Shortly After recovery, he suffered a second injury to his back in Celerno’s Drop Zone.
If paratrooper duty was dangerous, Reolledo was about to step the risk level up a major notch.  He next underwent live ammunition intensive training, and training in mine sweeping, whereupon he suffered a third, more serious injury when a truck loaded with live rounds flipped.   In duty to God and country, Reolledo injured his neck, an injury he battles to this day.
An ungrateful nation informed Reolledo his oath to serve the U.S. meant nothing. He was not a U.S. citizen.  His probation for a simple D.U.I., a common problem for soldiers trained to kill and returned to society, prevented Reolledo from becoming a U.S. citizen. A later misdemeanor check charge which Reolledo insists is bogus, sealed his fate.  No matter, a single D.U.I. is enough for ICE to confer the fatal, danger-to-society status, under the ICE invented term "Significant misdemeanor" and institute deportation.  The concept of a "significant misdemeanor" only exists in ICE thinking with the same standards never applied to citizens.  
When local police officers acting in the stead of ICE  burst into Reolledo's home, terrifying his wife and child, the lead officer noticed Reolledo's medal for bravery.
“You put your life on the line for our country, son.” The officer said. “You are a hero”.
Then he turned to his fellow officers and said, “We have the wrong house.”
The officers left Reolledo with his family terrified and bewildered. Reolledo had dodged a bullet.  The officers' decision not to arrest was only a reprieve. Reolledo was eventually arrested and deported.  His ten year old son refuses to acknowledge the pain with tears, but his face tells the story, as he talks about growing up without a father.  
Today, Reolledo lives in Mexico near deported veteran Hector Barajas. Together, they operate a safe house for deported veterans in Mexico. The name of their group is called Banished Veterans.  While the U.S. refuses Reolledo the health care he needs for his injuries, one benefit will always be available.  After Reolledo's death, his body may be returned for burial on U.S. Soil, if the family pays for transport.
An estimated 3,000 veterans, many with active combat duty, will spend Christmas apart from their families this year, including Fabian Reolledo.  Others, like the Valenzuela Brothers of Colorado, who each participated in active, violent combat in Viet Nam, faced deportation proceedings and have been refused citizenship. That is a pretty poor recruiting poster for a country which presumably honors it’s veterans. 
What can you give a banished veteran for Christmas? How about writing President Barack Obama and asking him to issue a pardon for banished veterans so they can spend Christmas with their wives and children, Reolledo suggests.
Latino youths from Mexico are tough as they come. Reolledo recovered again, then in March 1999 was deployed to campdondsteel in Kosovo. It was ugly. Our military was trying to curb genocide from the Sloboden Milosevic's regime. The year 1999 saw over 230,000 civilians killed and 3,000,000 people displaced. 
After returning to the U.S., Reolledo sought psychological help for what he saw and did in the name of freedom. He suffers nightmares today.
Author: Tim Paynter 
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