Immigrant vets face deportation despite service

Immigrant vets face deportation despite service

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When Rohan Coombs joined the U.S. Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend. Coombs, 43, born in Jamaica, immigrated to the United States legally as a child with his family. He signed up to serve his adopted nation for six years — first in Japan and the Philippines, then in the Persian Gulf during the first war with Iraq. Up to 8,000 non-citizens enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces every year and serve alongside American troops. As of May 2010, there were 16,966 non-citizens on ac

(visit the link for the full news article)

This article says that due to a drug problem this man, Rohan Coombs, who served in the US Marine Corps for six years, including during wartime, now faces deportation because of an arrest due to his drug use.

As a resident alien he was allowed to risk his life in service to this, his adopted country, but he doesn't matter enough for us to honor his service by allowing him to stay here and seek treatment or to undergo the same punishment a citizen would face.

Representative Bob Filner had this to say:

"You come back from Iraq or Afghanistan today, you have put yourself on the line for this country, an incredible number of kids come back with an injury or illness that puts them in trouble with the law. To simply have these people deported is not a good way to thank them for their service."

and I wholeheartedly agree.

If you take it upon yourself to fight for my freedom then I will take it upon myself to champion yours.

~Heff

www.google.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Hefficide


This shouldn't surprise anyone with the anti immagration stance adopted by the TPM, GOP and other right leaning
organizations; Ideology trumps honor everytime. This has been going on since Nam.

www.vvaw.org...

Some more info about Rohan Coombs:

Coombs struggled for years with drugs and eventually spent eight months in state prison.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found his criminal convictions made him eligible for deportation, and he was turned over to ICE after his sentence. He has been in an immigration detention center for 22 months and is appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court.

source

I am trying to find the exact charges leveled against Mr Coombs and if they are in addition to the charges that he served the eight months for already. But that info seems hard to come by, leaving me to do a county by county, city by city search of California PD databases - which is time consuming.

Another interesting snippet from the above, linked story...

Coombs' attorneys, Shagin and Heather Boxeth of San Diego, who have represented or advised immigrant veterans in similar straits, estimate up to 4,000 veterans who served as long ago as World War II are now in immigration detention or have been deported, but acknowledge that there are no hard numbers.

~Heff

He should have followed the rules. Plain and simple.

End of story.


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Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh
He should have followed the rules. Plain and simple.

End of story.

I agree that he should have followed the rules. And failure to do so should have penalties. As far as I can ascertain, thus far, he paid those penalties by serving time in jail.

Having served this nation, in wartime, in my opinion, he's earned the right to make his mistakes, pay the price, and remain an American - the same way that I am free to do.

Addiction (drugs) are a sketchy legal area anyway. The CDC defines drug addiction as a disease and yet we populate our prisons with people guilty of drug use. That is not a viable way to treat "disease".

This man is a sick soldier who paid his debt and should be treated for his illness the same way that the VA would treat him for any other illness. Especially since there is evidence that combat experiences can create a predisposition towards substance abuse issues to begin with.

~Heff

Reply to post by Hefficide

He has not fulfilled his time. One of the rules of registered aliens is deportation if you are arrested.

It should not matter what someone has done or accomplished. Rules are rules. They apply to everyone equally, or no one at all.



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