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You might be surprised to learn that 35 to 45000 non-U.S. citizens serve in the United States military.

It makes them eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship, but it's no guarantee.

Just a minor infraction could result in deportation.

That's the subject of Tacoma filmmaker Rob Young's film Bring Them Home.

And that's the discussion tonight on Northwest now.

Rob Walker grew up in Tacoma and got interested in the plight of deported veterans after producing a music video with Romanian rapper Dre Ross.

One thing to note, many of the deported veterans at the center of this discussion end up getting deported for relatively minor offenses, like writing a bad check, driving an unexpired license or marijuana possession.

The same sometimes knuckle headed moves a lot of young veterans make, but who are citizens?

So non-citizen veterans are on a short leash and their service doesn't help them in court like you might think it would.

Here's a clip from Bring Them Home.

I wanted a place that could help deported veterans in situations like mine navigate the hardship of deportation.

The separation from our families and the country we love and served.

Support US is a lifeline for many deported veterans living in Tijuana and around the world.

We provide housing, help them find jobs, file for the V.A.

benefits, and connect with pro-bono attorneys.

I served six years active, but I was scheduled to serve ten when I got out under medical condition because I was stabbed several times and I was no longer fit for combat duty.

I live off the sacrifices my brother and I made.

Some made the ultimate sacrifice.

I was willing when it was my turn, not once in a life when I fought for my home, the United States of America proudly willing to do what it took to win that fight.

How many years you served in the Marines serving?

When and why did you get deported?

When the guy was next to me, my coworker, he was illegal in the court, but living in the States, living in state for years.

So we got pulled over and it was illegal.

So the car belongs to me.

So they said I would transport it illegal.

Well, that's it.

Never been bigger than my first down knowing a traffic ticket.

I looked up to him a lot.

He was killed in Vietnam.

So that actually just like, sealed the deal.

I knew I had my obligation and I was going to serve one of these days.

Right.

But when that happened, it just I just went right after high school.

You know, you feel blown away.

You just feel blown away.

And it's it's really you know, we volunteered to serve the country.

We volunteered to protect the United States of America.

And and they just forgot about us All, for me is going back to my family to see my grandchildren and great grandchildren, my kids.

So I've seen that just two or three of them.

Three of them on my children.

I wouldn't say been here.

I didn't see anybody else in this stuff.

So I want candy.

no, not at all.

No, no, we're not.

We know how hard this effort is for.

It does.

You got a brother here from.

Is that right?

nice.

I don't regret anything.

There's no sense in doing something if you're not going to do it right.

There's no sense in doing something if you don't mean it.

The things we do, the things we say we're responsible for.

Just like we're responsible for the things we don't do and the things we don't see.

That's why I'm talking to you right now.

Because if I didn't talk to you right now, I would be responsible for not speaking up.

We also help with burial details so that our veterans who die can return.

It's to their families in America.

Under today's laws, most deported veterans would only come home to America with an American flag draped around their casket.

The very idea of a deported veteran brings up a complex discussion about what it means to be an American patriotism, loyalty, the rule of law, and our views of immigrants.

Joining us now are film producer Rob Young and Jose, 18, Haro, a recently repatriated Vietnam era veteran.

Welcome, both of you, to Northwest now.

Great to have a discussion about your film and this issue that surrounds the film that I think a lot of people will be surprised to hear about that.

So many veterans who have served honorably have have been deported.

We'll talk about that in a moment.

But Rob, first, talk to me a little bit about where you grew up, how you came up in the industry and how did this film come about.

Yeah, So I am in born and Raised in Tacoma, Washington Stadium High School.

I'm proud of it, you know, Father, a motivational speaker and a poet, mom worked in the educational system.

She's the director of Mesa for Tacoma.

So definitely had that foundation of, you know, artistry and then giving back and being involved in the community very quickly took to doing poetry and being a performer myself, which is actually how all of this came about.

Poetry turned into a love and a passion for music and doing hip hop and did that for a large part of my life.

And while creating a song called Excuse My Accent, which now just turned into a nonprofit, I came across the story of Hector Barajas, who's a deported veteran, and I was just really just working in my flow, create tivity, just thinking about that, that come from of xenophobia and bad and xenophobia and, you know, and started going down this wormhole of immigration and and what that is like because I'm not an immigrant.

Yeah and and I found this story I saw the two words together deported veteran and I just couldn't believe it was true.

I was like, yeah, I honestly I just there's no possible way that had to be a typo.

The more I dug, the more I realized it is true.

And I reached out to Hector Barajas at the Deported Veteran Support House, asked him to make a cameo in the music video excuse my accent.

Go check it out.

Shameless plug.

It's amazing.

Music video.

And he came down.

We heard his story, him and Kevin Martinez.

And honestly from there was, How can I contribute?

The first thing that I thought about was, well, let's let's do a documentary with the executive producer, Jerry Ross.

We had an amazing crew, you know, Rico Boom Garden, Tamar, Jackie, David, all coming together as a collective to get it going.

So Jose, talk a little bit about your back story, being a veteran and how it is you came to be deported after your service.

Well, I run in trouble with the law and, you know, and I served my time and then here in Walla Walla and I, being a veteran, first of all, I consider this my country.

You know, I was raised since I was nine years old in 69.

I came here legally and after my sentence, I came to see our immigration detention and everybody told me they're going to deport you anyway, blah, blah.

And I said, No, man, I'm a veteran.

I mean, I got something for me.

How cases.

I mean, sometimes ties the community some something.

This is going to back me up.

I mean, I give service.

If I was called upon to go to combat and live my life, then I would have for my country, you know, what I consider to be my country.

So after a year in detention, I believe in the cause.

So I stayed as long as it took Indian as a deported.

And how long were you deported?

25 years.

Wow.

Wow.

And, Rob, are people surprised to hear about this story that that that veterans can serve?

And and, yes, they end up running afoul of the law.

But we're not talking about major offenses here.

Right.

We're talking about fairly minor things, expired plates or just the, you know, what I call stuff, stuff that's major felonies.

Talk a little bit about that.

And what do people how do people react when they hear it?

I mean, I've spoken to veterans, people actively in the military and didn't know this is going on.

I've actually spoken to military recruiters who told me I was lying.

And I said, no, no, I did a documentary.

But they they actually got upset, realizing that they're recruiting and there is an American promise that's not being honored because that's something that is promised is citizenship.

I mean, the pathway to citizenship has been something that's been promised to non-citizens since the Revolutionary War.

This is as American as American gets.

If you're willing to actively lay your life down for this country, then you are an American.

There's nothing more American than being willing to die for that country and that flag.

One of the stories that really stuck out a guy who was a veteran got dinged for missing a court hearing, but he missed that court hearing because he was serving overseas.

Yes.

That's what got him deported.

Jose, in your experience, what kind of crimes are we talking about here?

And again, I don't think anybody would support, you know, a major felon, somebody shooting somebody in a liquor store, robbery, stabbing.

But we're talking about pretty ticky tacky stuff.

What's happening out there in your experience with talking with other veterans Well, mostly I would like to say that people there are deported.

I mean, me, I was bitter.

I said, is betrayal.

Like if you married somebody and they betrayed you cannot trust them again.

And people back in Mexico, they would be willing to join the military and fight and becomes for the United States, even though they went through that, that's how their loyalty and loyalty lies.

That's why I always tell people being an American citizen is in your heart.

Just the paper makes it official.

It's like when you're marrying a common law wife and.

And you already got everything.

Some people get married and they break up, you know?

So you don't.

I don't know.

It's just.

It's in your heart.

Everything that's in your heart.

Rob, The the military is falling short on its recruiting goals.

Just the other day, the Navy announced that they're going to sweep aside high school diploma and equivalent because they cannot get the people to to sign up and serve.

Is there are there any reform efforts?

Is there any discussion being had about, hey, with this huge crush we have at the border, if people are willing to serve, that should be a very nice pathway to citizenship, I would think.

Is is there any discussion about that, about reforms and what's going on?

Well, right now they have the Veterans Service Recognition Act.

We actually got to show the film to Congress members and staffers in the United States Capitol recently in support of the Veterans Service Recognition Act.

And that's something that's looking to create the National make the naturalization process seamless for non-citizens, and then also open up a pathway for deported veterans.

Obviously, there is a really strong problem with recruitment.

So this is an easy fix.

I mean, it's like I said, it's a promise that America has been given.

And I mean, think about it.

If you're if you're recruiting and we're having a problem with hitting those numbers and then we're having to deal with the fact that veterans who have enlisted are getting deported, a lot of people don't even know that this is happening, thinking about how hard it will be to recruit more if this does not get solved.

So there are some voices in Congress, there is some movement in Congress that is looking.

There is another movement, too, called Repatriate our Patriots.

Is that part of that congressional package will repatriate our Patriots is one of that deported veterans organizations that's working really hard, tirelessly to make sure that there's a pathway for first citizenship.

There's also black deported veterans of America Unify Deported Veteran Support House.

There is an active national coalition lobbying for this lobby, for this people working tirelessly.

And I didn't name all of them, but yeah, it's a good amount of people.

ACLU has been very helpful.

The VFW has been starting to come into the fold.

And honestly, at the end of the day, this is a veterans issue.

So having veteran service organizations at the forefront and getting active in this to make sure that, as we say, no man left behind, it rings true.

So, Jose, there's this whole overlay of it's a veterans issue, but you've got this big controversy with immigration.

Is that is that kind of hurting, hurting the chances of veterans to be to get back to America, to believe in the end?

It's all politics.

It's all politics.

And back in 1996, I don't know if you remember ADP Antiterrorism and Effective Disability Act of 1996.

That was the Clinton years.

What trigger?

Yeah, that was after the Oklahoma City bombing.

And it was domestic terrorist.

It was Timothy McVeigh.

Right.

Some of they put immigration stuff in it and denied writ of habeas corpus of a lot of the things they put in their back in the nineties is when this kind of got rolling.

That's when it started.

It started the immigration law hadn't changed since 19.

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

Okay.

When it changed, you had 90 days to appeal immigration and then you had to to see you could bring to the immigration judge you case you could you ties to the community, your business, your service, to the country, everything and an honorable discharge.

Yes, indeed.

To 14.

And they took that discretion from the judge.

So they're cutting away with American labor is not just us, but they're going like that.

So it's the same right now.

They started 25 years ago and it's going on.

The war is going to end.

And let me add something.

When I first I was one of the first names to get deported, I believe, and I was very bitter.

I tried to get I know you could get pro bono assistance from law schools, a Gonzaga Law School, School of Law, the immigrants.

You see an immigration trial and nobody helped me.

I tried to go to a world forum and I didn't know where to embarrass the United States because what they're doing to the veterans, you know, that's the only thing I could do in there.

Nobody helped me.

And I came in to work through one organization, just Googling it, because back in 96 with the Internet.

Yeah.

So we came of age and after that I met another organization.

They referred me to Trent Day, my lawyer from the Racial Migrants, the Migrants Race Migrant Center in world of horror.

It took her two and a half years to work with me.

She didn't charge me $0.01 and she gave me funds to help me.

I mean, I can say enough of once and you got it done, but there are so many other thousands that that haven't been able to get it done.

And the number, Rob, that I've got here is that this is 94,000.

That's a huge number.

94,000 veterans people have served, have been deported.

And again, you know, I know people are shouting at the television, the major felonies we're not talking about here.

We're talking about people who have done pretty typical stuff, getting sideways a little bit with law enforcement.

That's a lot of folks.

Yeah, No, it's a it's a ridiculous amount.

And, you know, there's so many different layers when it comes to this issue of deported veterans.

I mean, even when that ice not taking veterans consideration when doing deportation.

Yeah, it can't be part of the thought process.

Yeah.

But that's going against their own policy.

Their own policy says that they do take veterans service into consideration when doing deportation, but they just abandoned their entire policy.

And so that number is is a large amount.

And honestly, I say this and I mean this truly doing interviews like this and having media and doing the film, it does way more good than you could possibly think of.

There's a lot of deported veterans brought out across the world who don't even understand that people are fighting for them to come back.

They've lost hope.

They've given that they're dying out there.

What countries mostly are we talking mostly about?

Mexico, Mexican nationals or this Now, this is a this is a global issue.

You know, right now, Rudy, he's in Germany.

I mean, actually he's he's in UK, He's American.

German, right?

We have Jamaica, the Caribbean, Guyana, Peru, Mexico, Canada.

We had citizen from Kenya.

He just got Kenya.

So.

So it's it's it's definitely a global issue.

It's if you can think of that the melting pot of America this is this is the make of it is we are turning our backs on individuals who fight for this country who in the place that we call the land of immigrants.

This is a technical question.

I don't want to get too far into the weeds in, but how did those folks originally get into the country to enlist for the Army or the Marine Corps or the Navy?

Were they were some of them undocumented?

And then their documentation status is what gets them.

So for the most part, you have to be a green card holder.

So green cards to be enlisted in into the into the military.

So that's that's predominantly.

So this is all it's like I said.

And so it wasn't so much like we enlisted you.

but time out.

You're undocumented.

You're going back.

These folks have green cards.

Green cards are giving a promise.

The process of naturalization wasn't seamless.

And so there's been a lot of veterans who assumed that they had their citizenship and they don't find out until way later after two tours in Iraq or whatever.

Two tours in Iraq.

The combat veterans.

Yeah.

Mauricio Hernandez is a good friend who's actually in the documentary, you know, combat veteran, 100% PTSD, you know, So these these are people who are really willing to bleed for the country.

Yeah.

You know, and I honestly believe from the deepest core of my body, especially as we're walking ourselves into a very intense, divisive political time, what would it look like if we could all just agree on something that is wrong?

This is a bipartisan issue.

Yeah, we can agree that this is wrong and this could be solved by both parties.

Jose, you had something you wanted to say.

I think about the National Guard when I was recruited, it was led to believe that it was automatically once you join in the military, you become something here.

So I did.

I didn't.

When I went to basic training, this wasn't reality hit me.

You know, I would tell the the real drill sergeant I was promises.

I was promised that he woke me up.

He said, Son, do you have any right?

You said, No, sir, you're messed up.

You messed up because if you ever get ready, they can respect.

So did you have a green card coming across?

So then you enlisted.

They took your thing.

What?

What crime actually ended up getting you booted?

Well, I have a I started using drugs when I was in the military.

And then you got worse.

And then, you know, I got involved with drugs in this way.

Other.

But like I said, this I did.

I did.

I pay my debt to society.

Yeah.

And I believe that in the older days with before the lodges they would give you a choice.

I remember those in the seventies and stuff.

They say, Look, you want to go to Mexico, give me your green card.

And you didn't even have to serve time.

I think there was even a fair deal because just don't come back.

But if we deported everybody in the country that had been popped on a fairly minor drug offense, I five would be empty.

That's what I mean.

And look I it is is just I mean, it's not for the country.

I mean, it's not that you expect something back, but it's just I treat you right.

You treat me right.

And I mean yeah.

And again that your contention is that doing that service should weigh in on the consideration.

Well, you had a little bit of a drug issue.

But listen, you know, look look at what he's done and look at what the potential is here.

Look, I was an I due process.

Yeah, that's what I feeling.

I mean, I have I should be I mean, I defended the Constitution.

That same constitution should have 4 minutes in protection, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's just it's a tough gray area they find themselves in, Rob.

Not quite citizens, not quite with all the full protections of the Constitution, yet defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

I mean, it's a it's a weird deal.

Yeah.

No, it's crazy.

Especially since, you know, a lot of these America is their home.

You know, I've heard stories of veterans who get deported to a country that they haven't been to since there are two, three years old.

They don't even know that that what you would think would be a home is foreign to them.

Because this is home, you know.

Yeah.

And, you know, and it's it's to me, honestly, I'm a citizen.

My you know, my dad was in the Air Force and my grandfather's in the Army.

True.

But for me, this is really just understanding that I saw something completely, utterly wrong that crawled underneath my skin and made me want to do something about it.

And for this to change, it's definitely going to take a public outcry.

It's going to take awareness, it's going to take interviews like this, and it take the awareness that this is actually going on.

I've spoken to legislators, spoken to Congress members, and they've literally said we can try to do our hardest to get this done.

But the reality of it is, unless we have awareness from the public, yeah, then we're stuck with 30 seconds, Jose, on what your status is now.

Who do you.

I got my citizenship right, and I'm grateful for the.

Do you work in this area for other veterans?

Try to help or what's your own?

I try to work with Rob and I give back where I got some from the Ransom Center so every chance I can I donate to help other veterans so they can help with their legal issues.

With their legal issues.

I think she's doing a great job and but she works on a shoestring.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm sure she does.

Rob, we're folks working folks see this film If they want to learn more, where do they go and what's next for you?

I actually.

I don't want him to be so humble, okay?

I don't want to be so humble.

Easily deported.

This man has been deported for 25 years.

Came back after 25 years of deportation of the country that turned their back on its back on him, came back and is right now about to start working on his master's, actively picked himself off of the ground you know what I mean?

Actively working right now full time.

Thanks for stepping in, Rob.

Absolutely.

Because I feel like there definitely needs to be an acknowledgment of yeah, of that being a part of this society, willing to die for it.

And I remember standing there and being at his naturalization, right.

And swearing in ceremony.

And when he is actually saying words and swearing in it, saying the irony, it's saying, are you willing to pick up arms against foreign enemies?

Yeah, that's what this man was willing to do last 30 seconds.

Where can folks see the film and what's next for you?

Right now, we're working on distributing the film.

You could definitely go to bring them home.

Filmmaker Tom, We're going to be releasing it soon, so please sign up.

We're working on part two of Bring Them Home.

We're actively looking for people to join us and finding funders and things of that nature.

All right, guys, thanks both of you for coming to Northwest now.

Great program.

Very interesting to hear about.

Thank you.

The Biden administration's recent reforms have resulted in fewer than 100 deported veterans being returned to the U.S. and numerous bills in Congress are trying to streamline the process for non-citizen veterans to gain citizenship and to allow immigration judges to consider a person's veteran status before deporting them.

The bottom line it's not hard to come to the conclusion that something isn't right.

And not only that this country needs people willing to demonstrate their allegiance to the U.S. through service.

That seems like a pathway to citizenship.

Just about everybody should get behind.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking.

You can find this program on the web at k btc dot org.

Stream it through the PBS app or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

That's going to do it for this edition of Northwest.

Now until Next Time.

I'm Tom Layson, thanks for watching.