Last month, 6 formerly deported veterans joined members of the American Legion Post 354 in Buena Park gathered to unveil a mural of their fellow deported veterans. The room was filled to capacity with US Congressman Lou Correa and the entire Buena Park City Council in attendance among other officials in attendance. Their goal was to bring awareness to the issue that over 40,000 US active duty service members are currently vulnerable to deportation. Also, US veterans who have served honorable have already been deported and await humanitarian paroles so they can return to their families. The group is heavily promoting the re-introduction of the last congressional session’s bill HR 4569 which would end the practice of military deportations by allowing for the process of obtaining citizenship to begin during basic training.
THE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND MURAL PROJECT
A mural project supporting and bringing awareness of deported veterans across the globe. Since 1996 over 1,000 honorable discharged non-citizen veterans have been deported. All of them were here legally with green cards. It’s time to bring them home. Supported by the National Executive Committee of the American Legion. For more information https://
HR 4569 is the Veteran Service Recognition Act, which would protect non-citizen veterans from deportation and ensure that they and their families would still receive the benefits they earned if they are deported and begin the process of obtaining citizenship while in basic training. This bill also expedites the process for naturalization for our non-citizen servicemembers ensuring that no veteran or service members lips through the cracks of our immigrations system.
