He Served Three Tours in Iraq. Now This US Navy Veteran Faces Deportation

Outside a federal courthouse in San Diego, California, a small group of advocates gathered on Thursday morning to draw attention to a man they say the country has failed. One held a poster showing a young man in a US Navy uniform, three golden medals pinned to his chest.

"This is my brother, Benito Miranda Hernandez, US Navy veteran," said James Smith, founder of Black Deported Veterans of America. The rally was held on Hernandez's behalf while he remained miles away, held in an immigration detention facility.

A Promise of Citizenship

Brought from Mexico to the United States as a baby, Hernandez completed three tours of duty with the US military during the Iraq war. His service was supposed to open a path to citizenship. Instead, he is now among the immigrant veterans fighting deportation under President Donald Trump.

"These men and women were promised that they were going to get their citizenship if they served," Smith said. "Help this brother come home."

Trump has pledged to prioritise immigrants with criminal records in his push for mass deportation. But advocates argue that veterans are especially vulnerable, pointing to their over-representation in prisons and jails and the mental health struggles many report after service.

Hernandez has said he struggled to reintegrate into civilian life after leaving the military. On June 14, he completed a years-long sentence for a drug conviction. As he waited for his mother, Maria Miranda, to collect him, agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained him.

His mother and brother arrived only afterward and spent hours searching, unaware of where he had been taken. "He was doing things right," Miranda told Al Jazeera in Spanish. "He had so many hopes, so many dreams."

A Growing Trend

Hernandez has since been moved to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. He faces deportation despite receiving a green card for permanent residency earlier this year.

His case reflects a wider pattern. The exact number of deported veterans is difficult to establish because ICE has long failed to record the veteran status of those it detains, as required. Still, several advocates told Al Jazeera they have witnessed a rise in deportations of US veterans during Trump's second term. The New York Times reported in March that at least 34 veterans had been placed in deportation proceedings in the past year.

Some cases have attracted media attention, but advocates say other immigrant veterans have stayed out of the spotlight, fearing publicity could harm their immigration cases.

"As the ICE raids continue and revamp across the country, there's going to be people that are veterans that have not become US citizens that unfortunately will end up falling through the cracks," said Robert Vivar, cofounder of the Tijuana-based Unified US Deported Veterans Resource Center.

Danitza James, president of the advocacy group Repatriate our Patriots, said veterans are often flagged for outstanding warrants or convictions that have not been vacated while they pursue mandatory immigration steps. She said she is in contact with about six veterans detained by ICE in 2026 alone.

"Our government, they don't place any value in the service that our immigrants have," said James, herself a veteran and naturalised citizen. "They honestly see us as disposable."

Recruitment and Broken Paths

For decades, the US military has recruited immigrants to help fill staffing shortages, with recruiters often presenting service as a shortcut to naturalised citizenship. In practice, many immigrant soldiers report delays in that process while deployed.

By the time Hernandez was called for his citizenship interview in 2006, two years had passed since his final deployment. He had a criminal conviction by then, and his citizenship application was denied.

Advocates like Smith see this as part of a broader failure by the government to reckon with its military policies. "The United States government is failing to take accountability for what they've created," he said. "Then, when you get out, there is no process that gets you ready to be in the civilian world."

Several bills to protect immigrant veterans are under consideration in Congress, even as recruiters continue to target immigrant communities with promises of expedited citizenship.

An Uncertain Future

The next steps for Hernandez remain unclear. At Thursday's rally, a lawyer with a local immigration nonprofit told advocates the group may be interested in helping with his case.

In the meantime, his mother tries to keep his spirits up, taking his calls from detention and visiting on Saturdays, though the two-hour drive from Anaheim to San Diego is hard on her health.

"On Saturday, when I saw him, he was very, very depressed," Miranda said. She recalled his words in tears: "I don't want to cause you any more problems. I'm doing things right. I'm praying for myself." Then she added, "They clipped the wings of a bird, and all the hopes he had. They threw them in the trash."

As debate over immigration enforcement intensifies, cases like Hernandez's raise difficult questions about the promises made to those who served. Share this story to help keep the conversation going.

Source: Al Jazeera English