Iraq War Navy veteran faces deportation despite green card
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- Benito Miranda Hernandez, brought to the US from Mexico as a baby and a three-tour US Navy veteran of the Iraq war, was detained by ICE agents on June 14 — the day he finished his years-long drug sentence — as his mother waited to pick him up at the facility.
- Hernandez faces deportation despite receiving a green card for permanent residency earlier this year, and is now held at Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego; his mother Maria Miranda makes a two-hour drive from Anaheim for Saturday visits and said he has become 'very, very depressed.'
- The New York Times reported in March that at least 34 veterans have been placed in deportation proceedings in the past year, while Danitza James of Repatriate our Patriots told Al Jazeera she is in contact with about six veterans detained by ICE in 2026 alone.
- ICE has long failed to collect the veteran status of people it detains — as is required — making the exact number of deported veterans impossible to pin down, according to the article.
- Hernandez's citizenship application was denied in 2006 because by the time his interview came — two years after his last deployment — he had already accrued a criminal conviction, illustrating advocates' claims of systemic delays in naturalization for deployed immigrant soldiers.
- Several bills to protect immigrant veterans are currently under consideration in Congress, though recruiters continue to target immigrant communities with promises of expedited citizenship through service, advocates said.
Why it matters: With at least 34 veterans in deportation proceedings over the past year and ICE failing to track veteran status as required, the US is removing people it recruited for wartime service — even those who have completed their sentences and hold green cards. Hernandez's denied 2006 citizenship application, filed years after his deployment, exposes the gap between the promise of naturalization through military service and the reality of bureaucratic delay that leaves immigrant veterans deportable.
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