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[Dalek]

This Army veteran served his country. Will his undocumented wife be deported?

Army veteran Ricardo Pineda wore his uniform to a meeting with Congressional Hispanic Caucus members in February. His undocumented wife, Veronica Castro, sits behind him with their disabled son, Juan. (Griselda San Martin/For The Washington Post)

Ricardo Pineda was hesitant to wear his uniform.

Two years had passed since he had served in the Army. Then again, so much was at stake, and the disabled veteran knew the uniform would leave no confusion about who he was: a man who had been willing to die for this country and now needed help to keep his family living in it.

Pineda straightened the nameplate on his dress blues one day last month and entered a room in the Rayburn House Office Building, where he took a seat at a wooden table with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. His wife, Veronica Castro, stood behind him in a red blouse, and next to her, with his hair buzzed military short like his father's, sat their son Juan, a 17-year-old who suffered brain damage during heart surgery as a toddler.

When Pineda's turn came to speak, he told the lawmakers about his family's precarious situation.

On April 4, Castro will walk into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore, and she doesn't know if she will be allowed to return home to her husband and their four children, who are all U.S. citizens.

Castro, who twice entered the country illegally from Mexico, has faced these check-ins since 2011. But this one is different, she said. This is the 38-year-old's first appointment with ICE since the inauguration of President Trump, whose aggressive stance on illegal immigration has widened the pool of those vulnerable to deportation, making the routine check-ins that thousands of immigrants face each year feel more fraught — even for a military veteran's wife.

”I totally depend on my wife, 100 percent," Pineda, 47, told the lawmakers. ”My son totally depends on her."

After the meeting, some of the caucus's members posted support for military families on social media. Several, including Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva and Ruben Gallego, both Arizona Democrats, haveintroduced legislation in the House that would help prevent the deportation of service members convicted of certain crimes and permit some to return to the United States. But none of the proposals would help their relatives.

Pineda left the meeting with little hope, he said. Although he had been a soldier for six years and had dressed the part that day, he didn't know whether this was a fight he could win.

If his wife gets deported, Pineda said he has decided to move the entire family to Mexico, even as he worries about the consequences. He knows Juan will need more heart surgeries as he grows and wouldn't receive the same medical services there. The couple's other children, who don't speak fluent Spanish and know little about Mexico, are showing signs of depression. Ivan, 19, and Emily, 11, barely speak. Kevin recently asked his parents to renew his expired passport in case someone ”tries to kick him out."

”I think there should be some humanity," Pineda said. ”I swore to protect this nation and asking for a little bit of protection for my family, I don't think that is too much to ask for."

Pineda was 39 when he joined the army, older than most recruits but healthy enough to pass all the medical tests and compete with men half his age in boot camp. Now, he takes a half-dozen medications a day and has appointments at VA medical centers twice a week. Sometimes for his hand. Other times for diabetes and depression.

He was stationed in South Korea for more than a year and said the stress wore on his health. He not only had to worry about the threat in front of him but also what could go wrong back home. Juan landed in the hospital four times during his father's deployment. Castro, unable to get a Virginia driver's license because of her immigration status, pushed their son's wheelchair about 30 minutes each way from their home to the grocery store.

”I kept thinking if my husband is carrying a backpack with a rifle, I can do this," she said in Spanish.

Ret. Sgt. Major Gabriel Berhane, who was Pineda's commanding officer at Fort Belvoir, said he was disappointed to see Pineda leave the Army.

”I can't say enough good things about him," he said. ”Always, you could count on him, regardless what the task, what the mission was, he'd give it 100 percent plus."

Berhane, who works at the Pentagon, said he knows other soldiers who were not U.S. citizens. He was one of them. Born in Ethiopia, he had a green card when he enlisted and was a staff sergeant when he gained his citizenship.

Immigrants with permanent residency are eligible to join the military, and about 18,700 on average were serving on active duty between 2010 and 2016, according to the Defense Department.

Pineda gained his green card in 1986 and became a U.S. citizen two months after enlisting.

Lots more at the link-really awful story.

 

[Electric Eye]

They deport undocumented military veterans for commiting crimes all the time.

 

[yanipheonu]

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal

 

[Autoignition]

I don't understand. I thought marriage to a US citizen meant citizenship for yourself, too? Is there a reason why she hasn't been naturalized?

 

[lobdale]

Make America great again.

 

[ArkkAngel007]

I don't understand. I thought marriage to a US citizen meant citizenship for yourself, too? Is there a reason why she hasn't been naturalized?

I don't think this is the case. As I'm having issues getting the page to load, I would like to see the reason on why she hasn't been given citezenship. Bases have programs to ease the process from my experience.

Then again, I don't understand why undocumented immigrants are supposed to be given a complete pass on everything instead of tackling the issues with the immigration process.

 

[Dai101]

Veronica Castro

DAMN. Didn't knew she falled in hard times.

 

[HStallion]

Hey thanks for fighting for the country! We're gonna kick your wife out now!

 

[derder]

Very strange. I thought you were naturalized when marrying a military man

 

[luxarific]

She probably got fingered as non-documented by the IRS before she could apply. That would be a pre-existing condition (to borrow a phrase) that would make her ineligible.

 

[Dyle]

I don't understand. I thought marriage to a US citizen meant citizenship for yourself, too? Is there a reason why she hasn't been naturalized?

It appears that they were married before he became a citizen and marriage visas are often denied to people who entered the country illegally.

You gotta hope that the immigration judge preceding their case is willing to make an exception for the family, but these days it seems unlikely.

 

[RinsFury]

Fuck this country.

 

[Autoignition]

It appears that they were married before he became a citizen and marriage visas are often denied to people who entered the country illegally.

You gotta hope that the immigration judge preceding their case is willing to make an exception for the family, but these days it seems unlikely.

Ah, I see. Thank you.

 

[Imperfected]

Probably could do a lot more to strengthen the military by not threatening a bunch of Army wives and children with deportation than by pouring more money into vehicle-based programs no one on the ground cares much about.

Probably doesn't matter to Trump since the point of upping the budget isn't to actually increase the Army's effective fighting power, anyway.

 

[Beartruck]

You mean to tell me the US government doesn't care about their veterans once they're done with them?

 

[akira28]

You mean to tell me the US government doesn't care about their veterans once they're done with them?

at least twice this has caused armed gatherings of disgruntled veterans.

so historically, yes.

 

[Discusguy]

It's on the veteran. As a veteran myself that married an immigrant I spent the first year doing all the proper paperwork. Than 5yrs down the road they tell you two have to be interviewed. You have to prove that you are actually married not just doing it for money. They ask a lot of personal questions. Accounts have to be joined. Then you get a permanent resident status that you have to renew when the time comes.

 

[Black Mamba]

It's on the veteran. As a veteran myself that married an immigrant I spent the first year doing all the proper paperwork. Than 5yrs down the road they tell you two have to be interviewed. You have to prove that you are actually married not just doing it for money. They ask a lot of personal questions. Accounts have to be joined. Then you get a permanent resident status that you have to renew when the time comes.

No, it's on the COUNTRY to not deport a PERSON that is the wife of a veteran and mother of a disabled person unless that person commits actual crimes worthy of deportation.

It's inhumane to break up these families.

 

[Discusguy]

No, it's on the COUNTRY to not deport a PERSON that is the wife of a veteran and mother of a disabled person unless that person commits actual crimes worthy of deportation.

It's inhumane to break up these families.

I agree but it's also on the veteran too

 

[commedieu]

No, it's on the COUNTRY to not deport a PERSON that is the wife of a veteran and mother of a disabled person unless that person commits actual crimes worthy of deportation.

It's inhumane to break up these families.

The law is black and white for citizens. Not so much the wealthy and politicians who skirt it all the time.

It's his fault that he isn't wealthy, so that he could bend the law in his favor.

 

[Black Mamba]

I agree but it's also on the veteran too

His family has been operating on the belief that she just has to check in with ICE every year and she's fine.

Now a new asshole comes into power and changes the rules mid-game (who, btw, skirted around the law for his own wife).

We're breaking the promises to him. He did nothing wrong. I understand your complaint but none of it takes away from the inhumane actions and that's the only thing that matters.

 

[numble]

It's on the veteran. As a veteran myself that married an immigrant I spent the first year doing all the proper paperwork. Than 5yrs down the road they tell you two have to be interviewed. You have to prove that you are actually married not just doing it for money. They ask a lot of personal questions. Accounts have to be joined. Then you get a permanent resident status that you have to renew when the time comes.

You don't qualify for that process if you had entered the US illegally.

 

[Discusguy]

You don't qualify for that process if you had entered the US illegally.

Did not know that. Thanks for the info.

 

[aBarreras]

I don't think this is the case. As I'm having issues getting the page to load, I would like to see the reason on why she hasn't been given citezenship. Bases have programs to ease the process from my experience.

Then again, I don't understand why undocumented immigrants are supposed to be given a complete pass on everything instead of tackling the issues with the immigration process.

nobody is asking to give a pass to her, they are asking to not deport her just because trump doesnt like mexicans

also she can do the immigration process because she entered illegaly

 

[IISANDERII]

It's on the veteran. As a veteran myself that married an immigrant I spent the first year doing all the proper paperwork. Than 5yrs down the road they tell you two have to be interviewed. You have to prove that you are actually married not just doing it for money. They ask a lot of personal questions. Accounts have to be joined. Then you get a permanent resident status that you have to renew when the time comes.

What if you'd been KIA?

 

[AlteredBeast]

Weapons not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal

I feel like Rage was just quoting Eisenhower's speech on the military industrial complex.

We could eradicate homeless, poverty, malnourishment, and work towards eradicating anti-intellectualism in this country with a quarter of the military budget.

 

[Sunster]

I don't understand. I thought marriage to a US citizen meant citizenship for yourself, too? Is there a reason why she hasn't been naturalized?

na it's a process, not immediate and not guaranteed.

 

[Yes Boss!]

Military members go through the same process as civilians. Same paperwork for visas. If they were married prior to his having joined then they should have gotten her to go back to Mexico and file for the proper visa so that she could then start the normal process. In that sense the Visa to the US would have been assuredly given. In the meantime Tricare would have taken care of the son's medical expenses since he is already a dependent and an Exeptional Family Member. This service member seems to have not done his proper due diligence.

 

[NoFaceNico]

Who did he vote for?

The amount I'm willing to care about her being deported is directly proportional to how much he cared about her being deported.