Congressman Gonzalez Praises House Judiciary Committee for Hearing on Deported Veterans and Immigration Policies

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (TX-15) praised the House Judiciary Committee on Immigration and Citizenship for holding a hearing entitled "The Impact of Current Immigration Policies on Service Members and Veterans, and their Families". The hearing sought to address the Trump Administration's tragic immigration policies and how U.S. immigrant veterans are being deported despite their service to our country.

Congressman Gonzalez has made the repatriation of our deported veterans one of his top legislative priorities since joining Congress in 2017. He introduced the bipartisan Repatriate Our Patriots Act (H.R. 1078) with Congressman Don Young (AK-At Large) in the 115th and 116th Congresses to provide a path for certain special veterans to return to the United States after deportation and having served their sentences fully.

"Today's hearing was an important step in the fight to protect our immigrant veterans from the Trump Administration's heartless immigration policies. These veterans fought for us and now it's time for us to fight for them," said Congressman Gonzalez. "We cannot in good conscience ask for service members to put their lives on the line for our constitutional rights and not afford them the right of citizenship. We must do all we can to protect our veterans from deportation and return those veterans who were deported to the nation they were willing to die for."

The Repatriate Our Patriots Act was inspired by the story of deported U.S. Army veteran, Carlos Jaime Torres. He was deported in December of 2018 and passed away in Reynosa, Mexico before he could return the United States – the nation he called home.

More information on the Repatriate Our Patriots Act can be found here.

The House Judiciary Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee hearing on "The Impact of Current Immigration Policies on Service Members and Veterans, and their Families" can be found here.