Photos: Facebook
A group of banished U.S. Veterans opened the first Deported Veterans Support Home (Safehouse) of its kind in Baja California, Mexico.
By H. Nelson Goodson
October 13, 2012
Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico - On Saturday, the first modest support house for deported U.S. Veterans opened in the town of El Rosarito in Baja California. Dozens of banished Veterans from the U.S. now living in the municipalites around Rasarito made their presence at the inaugural event, according to a Facebook post by one of its founders Hector Barajas. Barajas posted that the support house is in need of donations and a PayPal account has been established to received needed funds to keep the Deported Veterans Support House (DVSH) open.
Last Monday, U.S. Veteran Fabian Rebolledo, one of the multitude of Veterans that have been been deported by the U.S. Government also posted on Facebook that only upon the death of a deported U.S. Veteran presently living in another country can they be fully honored and recognized by the U.S. military and government as Americans. The U.S. Government provides a plot and marker.
Rebolledo posted that 12,000 or more U.S. Veterans have been deported by the U.S. Rebolledo, who served in the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne will face between 7 to 20 years in a federal prison, if he illegally returns to the U.S. Rebolledo stated, "Currently in Eloy there are 17 Veterans being deported. One of hundreds in federal detention centers around the country. If I die today, I can be buried as an American with full military Honors...only upon my death may I be able to be an American!" He is now residing Baja California in Mexico along with another deported Veteran Hector Barajas. Both men and a group of other Veterans began a support group to provide help for other U.S. Veterans in the same predicament brought upon them by unjust immigration laws and the same government and country they honorably served.
The group of banished Veterans were instrumental in establishing a safehouse that will provide support to other Veterans that have been deported as well. One of those deported Veterans, Barajas with the assistance of Rebolledo, another deported Veteran, has turned Barajas Rosarito Beach home into a Deported Veterans Support Home where Barajas resides after being deported to Mexico.
Barajas, who served in the U.S. Army between 1995 to 2001 indicated that the safehouse will provide the needed support for those deported U.S. Veterans facing preliminary removal trauma and dislocated shock after being deported from the U.S. by the same government that they proudly and honorably served. Veterans facing removal proceedings from the U.S. will eventually get deported to Mexico or to their native countries. The safehouse will be the first of its kind in Mexico.
Those Veterans in Mexico seeking support will be able to get spiritual advice, shelter, food, assistance in getting a local Mexican ID. They will also have access to a phone and Internet, according to Barajas.
At the moment, Barajas is seeking contributions and donated furniture, food, clothing, contacts for job skill training and future job placement for the banished U.S. Veterans in Mexico.
"Since 1996, the U.S. government has deported Vietnam, Persian, Gulf War, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan combat/peace time Veterans who had legal residence, VA benefits and strong ties to the U.S.," Barajas stated.
On Friday, both Manuel and Valente Valenzuela from Colorado Springs addressed and spoke about the issue of the banished U.S. Veterans at the University of Texas El Paso Campus in El Paso, Texas. The Valenzuelas who have become advocates for deported Veterans had faced the threat of deportation themselves for misdemeanor crimes, but were able to stay in the U.S., until their immigration case gets resolved. The Valenzuelas were born in Mexico to a U.S. Citizen mother from New Mexico. Their father was a Mexican national, but later legalised and became a U.S. Citizen. By birth right to a U.S. Citizen in another country, their born children become automatically U.S. Citizens, according to federal law.
Since then, they have learned of hundreds of Veterans facing deportation or who have been deported regardless of their contributions and honorable service in the armed forces protecting the freedom of Americans and the U.S. Constitution. They have put forth the issue of the deportation of U.S. Veterans, despite President Barack H. Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney's exclusion of the issue in their first debate or in their current campaigns for U.S. President.
The safehouse opened on Saturday at
614 Jorge Estonol
Colonia Reforma
Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico
Hector Barajas can be contacted at Banishedveteran@yahoo.com or at U.S. area code 626-569-5491 for more information about the safehouse. Barajas email can also be use to donate needed funds through PayPal.
The Valenzuela brothers could be contacted at brothersvalenzuela@gmail.com for more information about the banished Veterans.
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