ICE is supposed to consider service when deporting veterans. It hasn’t been.

[tulc]

ICE is supposed to consider service when deporting veterans. It hasn’t been.

Over the past couple of years, stories of non-citizen veterans being deported have made major headlines. As it turns out, there is a process in place that provides extra consideration for those immigration cases, but federal officials haven’t been following it.

It’s an issue that’s affected at least hundreds of veterans, but the full extent is unknown because of a lack of record keeping, according to a report released last week by the Government Accountability Office.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement not only doesn’t adhere to the policy requiring a service record review before deporting these veterans, they also don’t track how many of them are caught by federal agents or ultimately deported, according to the report.

“When ICE agents and officers learn they have encountered a potentially removable veteran, ICE policies require them to take additional steps to proceed with the case,” according to the report. “GAO found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 to 2018.”

Many legal residents of the U.S. choose to service in the military because it can earn them citizenship, though they don’t always qualify for or complete that process. After separation, they could spend years still in the U.S., until something like a criminal conviction brings them to ICE’s attention.

At the request of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, GAO sifted through two databases, finding 250 veterans who had been subject to removal, and 92 who had ultimately been deported.

Since 2004, there have been two memos dictating how ICE agents handle a notice to appear ― the first step in deportation proceedings ― for veterans. And since 2015, those cases have needed to be kicked to a higher headquarters for review.

At a minimum, they must consider:

tulc(thought this was interesting)

 

[Hank77]

The reason is that immigration enforcement basic training includes a lesson on including veteran status on paperwork, officials said, though that same lesson plan’s list of mandatory questions doesn’t include one about military service.


And if veterans are identified, none of the agencies involved have consistent means to track what happens to them. It might be noted on one form, but that information doesn’t go into the multiple databases used, preventing any electronic searches.


“Because ICE does not maintain complete electronic data on potentially removable veterans it encounters, ICE does not know exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed, or if their cases have been handled according to ICE’s policies,” the reporter found. [Emphasis mine]
ICE is supposed to consider service when deporting veterans. It hasn’t been.

Lack of record keeping appears to be a problem when in comes to immigration. This is the same reason that they have missing children that they say they have lost track of where they have been placed with HHS.

Come on, we have lived with computers for a long time but it appears that government records at times are worse than they were before. The handwritten 1910 census records verified where my great-great grandparents were born.

 

[redleghunter]

From the article:

GAO found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 to 2018.”​

Shame on Obama’s ICE.

Looks like Trump fixing it.


“U.S. Marine veteran Marco Chavez, who was deported to Mexico in 2002 after he was convicted of a minor offense. In 2017 he won his fight to return to the U.S.”

 

[Sistrin]

Quote from the OP article:

“GAO found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 to 2018.”

Who was President during the years 2013 to 2016, the bulk of the time specified?

 

[dqhall]

From the article:

GAO found that ICE did not consistently follow its policies involving veterans who were placed in removal proceedings from fiscal years 2013 to 2018.”​

Shame on Obama’s ICE.

Looks like Trump fixing it.


“U.S. Marine veteran Marco Chavez, who was deported to Mexico in 2002 after he was convicted of a minor offense. In 2017 he won his fight to return to the U.S.”

Trump continued the policy in his first two years in office. We did not get data for 2019 yet.