By admin 
TOLLESON, AZ (AZFamily/AP) — Arizona Rep. Adelita Grijalva is backing new legislation to protect veterans from deportation.
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The legislation, the Veterans Visa and Protection Act, is designed to give deported veterans a path to permanent residency and protect other veterans from deportation.
Rep. Grijalva, a Democrat, said this year alone, 400 veterans have been deported.
Veterans say they are promised a pathway to citizenship or a visa after they serve the country, but many are deported instead.
Rep. Grijalva and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill, are working on advancing the bill and urging lawmakers to sign it.
At a roundtable Thursday in Tolleson, a veteran said he was deported to Mexico after committing a crime but was able to return to the U.S. through humanitarian parole.
“I’m advocating because I just think it’s a slap in the face to our veterans that serve their time. In my situation, I deployed two times to the Middle East and did operations around the world, so I did what I had to do to defend my country when I was out there. And when I come back, just because I get in trouble to get deported is a slap in the face,” said Milton Tepeyac, a Marine Corps veteran.
Tepeyac said he wanted to join the military as a way to say thank you for getting his green card.
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He said even though immigrants have a green card or legal permanent resident status, it does not mean they are safe. They have to be citizens.
As of February, nearly 50,000 foreign nationals are serving in active and reserve components of the U.S. Armed Forces.
There are well more than 100,000 military veterans living in the U.S. who do not have citizenship, according to estimates in recent years by the Congressional Research Service.
Despite military recruiters frequently describing service as a fast-track to citizenship for troops and their family members, the Republican administration’s immigration agenda is putting them at renewed risk of deportation.
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