By Kayla Meraz
WASHINGTON, DC – Advocacy groups are urging President Biden to utilize his pardon power to protect noncitizen military veterans from deportation due to federal criminal convictions.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) described in a statement this month the harsh consequences veterans face, including permanent separation from the country they served, emphasizing that presidential pardons could reunite families and rectify a perceived injustice.
Organizations advocating for noncitizen military veterans with federal criminal convictions, potentially facing deportation, are calling on President Biden to exercise his pardon power.
In a letter to Elizabeth Oyer, the Justice Department’s pardon attorney, the ACLU, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the National Immigrant Justice Center, and partners emphasized the invaluable service noncitizen veterans have rendered to the country, the immigration consequences they face, and the potential of presidential pardons to keep families intact.
Jennie Pasquarella, immigrants’ rights director at the ACLU of Southern California, said, “Many veterans face challenges reintegrating into civilian life after military service and wind up entangled in the criminal legal system.
“But instead of being provided rehabilitation and care — many return home with physical injuries or mental health diagnoses — noncitizen veterans face a second punishment for their criminal conviction: permanent removal from the nation they swore to protect. This is cruel and unjust, but with the stroke of a pen, President Biden can make sure these people can remain in the country they call home.”
The letter points out that one in three veterans have been arrested or jailed at least once, often due to crimes stemming directly from traumatic military experiences. For noncitizen veterans, even nonviolent or misdemeanor convictions can lead to mandatory deportation, separating them from the only country they have ever known.
This situation is especially harsh for those who arrived in the U.S. as children, as deportation means being sent to a foreign land with no family or support system, and possibly being unfamiliar with the language, said the ACLU in its letter.
The case of Jose Francisco Lopez, a 79-year-old veteran who served honorably in the Vietnam War, illustrates the plight of noncitizen veterans, said the ACLU, adding despite rehabilitation after a drug-related crime conviction in 1994, he was deported to Mexico in 2003, separating him from his US citizen children.
Under the Biden administration’s Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative (IMMVI), Lopez was repatriated in 2023. However, a federal pardon would make him eligible to be naturalized based on his military service.
The letter urges the adoption of a process for pardoning noncitizen veterans, including those repatriated under the initiative and others facing removal or barriers to naturalization due to federal convictions.
The ACLU said deportation, as a permanent banishment from the U.S., is a uniquely harsh and disproportionately unjust outcome that can and should be waived through the President’s pardon authority.
Tara Stutsman, senior campaign strategist with the ACLU’s Redemption Campaign, highlights the power of clemency, and said, “Clemency is a powerful tool to correct injustices – it can offer people second chances and their freedom, but it can also do so much more.
“It can provide justice for people who have served in our military and have since been deported. Our Constitution gives the president clear authority to forgive past and current offenses, and President Biden must remedy this injustice now.”
And, Amanda Schuft, legal services director of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said, “Congress intended executive pardons to be the safety valve to prevent unjust deportations otherwise mandated by our immigration laws. Veterans, whether citizens or noncitizens, should reunite with their families and communities upon completion of their service–not permanently banished from all they know and love.
“President Biden can and should correct this injustice by pardoning these veterans, so that they may remain permanently in the United States with their families.”
