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Colorado Springs brothers, Vietnam vets, fight deportation based on misdemeanors

  

Category:  News & Politics

Via:  kavika  •  7 years ago  •  95 comments

Colorado Springs brothers, Vietnam vets, fight deportation based on misdemeanors

Colorado Springs brothers, Vietnam vets, fight deportation based on misdemeanors





November 11, 2016 Updated: November 11, 2016 at 10:49 am


 








photo - Manuel Valenzuela, left, and his brother Valente Valenzuela. Contributed photo Manuel Valenzuela, left, and his brother Valente Valenzuela. Contributed photo  

Colorado Springs brothers Valente and Manuel Valenzuela fought for their country during Vietnam. Now they're fighting their country - to stay here.


The brothers, both in their 60s, have been fighting separate removal orders since 2009. The brothers and most of their siblings were born in Palomas, Mexico, and they were brought to the U.S. as small children in 1955. They went to public schools. Manuel Valenzuela attended college, and five of the eight brothers have collectively served in the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force.

The removal attempts came as a surprise because their mother was born in New Mexico, which means her children should be U.S. citizens.

"It's crazy," Manuel Valenzuela said of the brothers' legal problems.

He was a Marine who served in Vietnam in 1971 and 1972. Older brother Valente was there in 1968 and was awarded a Bronze Star for heroism in combat.

A month apart they received deportation notices from the Department of Homeland Security in 2009 because of old misdemeanors on their records.

When President Bill Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, it lengthened the list of crimes that could get a legal resident deported. They have been fighting a paperwork battle for seven years.

The immigration courts tell the brothers it's all about paperwork, they said, and some of it is in dispute by the Valenzuela brothers.

The fact they contend they're U.S. citizens is one issue. The Valenzuela brothers are more incensed that their military service, even combat duty, buys no leeway in misdemeanors under U.S. immigration law.

"It's not right to throw away soldiers," Manuel Valenzuela said.

Sunday, they will march in the San Francisco Veterans Day Parade as representatives of Stop Deportation of Military Veterans.

To date, Stop Deportation of Military Veterans says about 3,000 former service members have been deported since the law passed 20 years ago.

Valenzuela is discouraged by the lack of political will to amend or repeal the law. He supported Barack Obama but faults him for not addressing veteran deportations. He said U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs and Sen. Michael Bennet haven't helped.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, has vowed to step up deportations of those immigrants deemed criminals.

Valenzuela votes with no problem. He was a state delegate for Bernie Sanders this year.

On CNN, lawyer and USA Today columnist Raul A. Reyes appeared with the brothers and said they had an obvious case for reversal of the deportation order.

"That is a very minor issue," he said. "We have members of Congress who have misdemeanors."











Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
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Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika     7 years ago

WTF is wrong with the U.S.

First off how are they not U.S. citizens. Their mother was a U.S. citizen.

Combat veterans, that served their country when other choose not to, by running to Canada or wangling deferments or some imagined physical aliment.

I am incensed over the, IMO, illegal treatment of these decorated vets.

 

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

I think anyone who serves in the United States military should automatically get citizenship.

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
link   Nowhere Man  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

WTF

is wrong with this government! And another WTF is wrong with those supporting such deportations!

Anybody ever heard of Herman the German?

Herman the German a German national (prussian no less) that was recruited in 1937 from Germany to go to China and serve in support of the Chinese Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek. Once he arrived, the company that recruited him no longer existed, so he took odd jobs as an automobile mechanic to survive. He was interned as an enemy alien by the British at Hong Kong, but was spirited into China without a passport by the Chinese Government to serve in the Chinese Air Force. He was Introduced to Gen. Claire Chennault and hired to work as a civilian mechanic with the AVG using his skills in support of the Flying Tigers.

When the AVG was absorbed into the USAAF in 1942 he came right along with it and was sworn into the US military service as a senior aircraft technician with the rank of Staff Sergeant. (he rose to the rank of Master Sergeant during his time in China) While in China, he is the man mostly responsible for writing the Report that the Flying Tigers forwarded to the US military about the capabilities/deficiencies of the Japanese zero fighter. (he did this by building an airworthy example of the zero from a salvageable airframe and scrounging parts from the many wrecks in the area) Long before the Akutan Zero was recovered. He led dangerous supply convoys, he performed all types of mechanical repairs on P-40 aircraft, he translated to and from Chinese and he even directed bombing attacks from the ground while disguised as a Chinese coolie. He definitely did his part.

He was eventually ordered in 1944 to report to Washington DC to see Bill Donovan (OSS Chief) and report on what was going on in China and his activities there amongst the Chinese. But for everything he did as a US soldier and in support of the AVG in China he was refused entry into the US as an Enemy Alien!

Six years fighting for America holding the rank of senior master sergeant in the USAAF, he still wasn't granted admission to the country.

It took a special Act of Congress to grant him full citizenship. And the arguments used for that was that anyone who serves in defense of this great land is automatically a US citizen! (he later went on to be one of the chief designers of the J-79 engine and worked with Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson (yes THAT Kelly Johnson of Lockheed skunkworks fame) on it's construction as a peer. He devised the system of variable position stators in the compressor of a jet engine which allowed a turbojet to exceed the speed of sound in stable flight without flaming out. (actually creating the first Jet engine capable of sustained operation at mach two)

He eventually became a VP of General Electric.

He has a hangar at MIT named for him.

He has a street in Evandale, Ohio named for him.

He wrote a book about his journey.....

Neumann, Gerhard (1984), Herman the German: Enemy Alien U.S. Army Master Sergeant , New York, NY, USA: Morrow, ISBN   0-688-01682-0 .

He, as well as the Valenzuela brothers epitomizes the the ideals of what this nation stands for.

That was the Ideals of the Founders and General Washington concerning anyone who volunteered to serve in the Continental Army, ANYONE willing to take Baron Von Stuben's citizenship away? Or Lafayette's? (yes, they were actually pronounced as citizens of the United States for their service during the revolution)

And they (the Valenzuela's) were born to a US Citizen! Then they are automatically US citizens no matter where they were born.

I DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHO YOU ARE OR WHERE YOU CAME FROM, YOU SERVE IN THE US MILITARY YOU ARE A CITIZEN!

PERIOD!

This is a no brainer.

What shocks me is so called libertarians are saying or arguing otherwise.

 

 
 
 
1ofmany
Sophomore Silent
link   1ofmany  replied to  Nowhere Man   7 years ago

Buzz posted the law.

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
link   Nowhere Man  replied to  1ofmany   7 years ago

Was just stating my opinion my friend.

The law is the law, but it is a law that needs changing...

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Nowhere Man   7 years ago

I have been trying to find the article and photo of a group of Iraq's being swore in as citizens with General David Petraus there. The photo also show two empty slots with a pair of boots, helmet, rifle and bayonet.

Two of them that died fighting while not being citizens were still swore in as citizens.

This is a no brainer, NWM.

In 1919 Congress granted citizenship to all American Indians that fought in WWI...yeah we weren't even citizen of our own country at the time, that came in 1924.

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
link   Nowhere Man  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Here ya go Kav....

Nearly 600 U.S. Troops Re-enlist in Baghdad on Independence Day

It wasn't the only one he did either.....

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika     7 years ago

It's really quite sad that America treats real American warriors in this trashy way.

Thank you NWM. That is the article I was looking for! 

 

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

MAGA!  /s

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  PJ   7 years ago

Too bad their deportation started during Obama's administration. You'll have to blame him. MAGA.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

I didn't blame any past or present presidents. What I said was the government. Perhaps you should take a reading lesson. Or better yet, make a comment that that has to do with their plight.

Being a big supporter of the military that should be easy for you.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

I wasn't talking to you, was I?

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Nope.  You were talking to ME!  Your nemesis.......

You were supposed to be working on your angry words and how you deliver your message.  It's still coming across rather bluntly.  We still have much work to do.....tsk, tsk, tsk.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  PJ   7 years ago

Embarrassed by your anti-Trump bigotry? Blaming him for government actions beginning in 2009? A simple apology would be sufficient. 

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Huh?  have you been drinking tonight?  

Nevermind

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  PJ   7 years ago

It's OK. It was obvious to the rest of us. Your denial doesn't change anything.

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

I seriously have no idea what you are referring to regarding your reference to 2009 but I no longer care.  You just can't seem to help yourself.......smh

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  PJ   7 years ago

The fact that you have no idea is the problem.  Sad.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Still can't make a comment regarding the case....Oh well, keyboard warriors like yourself rarely have much of importance to say. Go back to the deplorables where you fit in quite well.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Still don't understand threading, eh?

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Sure do, but since it's my article I chose to respond to your comment. That to difficult for the simple minded to comprehend.

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy    7 years ago

What's also sad is that so few people seem to care about this horrible miscarriage of justice happening!

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

John says we should ignore individual injustices. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

John isn't on the article. Try again.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

John says we should ignore individual injustices.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Do you have a thing for John. Seems that your obsessed with him.

 

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

You don't understand logic do you? Internal consistency is alien to liberals.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Common sense is foreign to right wingers.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Sad sad deflection.

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy    7 years ago

The removal attempts came as a surprise because their mother was born in New Mexico, which means her children should be U.S. citizens.

If the government is successful in deporting these two Veterans, who are by law American citizens, then that opens the door to them being able to deport any American they choose to. ANY American!

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Randy   7 years ago

Following their logic, Ted Cruz should be deported. I can hardly wait for ICE to grab his stupid ass and deport him to Canada, or better yet Cuba.

 
 
 
Krishna
Professor Expert
link   Krishna    7 years ago

 This is crazy-- they should not be deported!

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Krishna   7 years ago

Especially since they are already living in the country of which they are citizens of.

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
link   Buzz of the Orient  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

Even though their mother was born in the USA, and is probably therefore a US citizen, I would assume they were born in Mexico, in which case perhaps it is necessary for them to at least apply to be US citizens (which should of course be granted because their mother is one). I assume that is what Cruz did. Perhaps they never applied. There is too much that is not known here to make judgment about it. Am I right?

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Buzz of the Orient   7 years ago

Probably. This story is one sided.

 
 
 
1ofmany
Sophomore Silent
link   1ofmany  replied to  Buzz of the Orient   7 years ago

Even though their mother was born in the USA, and is probably therefore a US citizen, I would assume they were born in Mexico, in which case perhaps it is necessary for them to at least apply to be US citizens (which should of course be granted because their mother is one). I assume that is what Cruz did. Perhaps they never applied. There is too much that is not known here to make judgment about it. Am I right?

I agree that we need more facts. Like you, I assume that they were born in Mexico. Even if their mother is an American citizen, I don't think they get automatic citizenship unless their mother and father were married at the time of their birth. Non-citizens can join the military and get a special expedited review of an application for citizenship but they still have to apply. So it looks like their mother wasn't married and their criminal history is making them ineligible to apply for citizenship.

I'm sure these guys have known their legal status for over 40 years. They also knew that non-citizens can use military service to expedite an application for citizenship but the application would not likely be approved if they have a criminal history. That's the same rule for everybody else and it should be the same for them. It's not like they were rounded up by ICE yesterday. The got deportation norices in 2009 so they've had 8 years to prepare for a possible deportation. 

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
link   Buzz of the Orient  replied to  1ofmany   7 years ago

The question can be answered if the brothers fit the fact situations required by US law. We cannot see in the article all of the facts that are required to establish citizenship. Check the law here:

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov    7 years ago

"Manuel has more than three pages of charges dating from 1998 to 2014 for everything from wiretapping to simple assault. Valente's record is nearly two pages long, spanning from 1996 to 2001, and includes everything from harassment (domestic violence) to theft of rental property. "

No story is as simple as presented here.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Of course it's not...Being U.S. citizens doesn't count for anything. How very cool of a keyboard warriors to be able to pass condemnation on something that is beyond their comprehension.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

I apparently comprehend more than you. Laws have consequences. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   seeder  Kavika   replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Yes they do have consequences. Please show me the felony convictions that they have.

 

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

I am not aware of any crime that, if committed by an American citizen, results in their deportation as punishment?

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

They're not acknowledged American citizens. See the difference? 

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

The removal attempts came as a surprise because their mother was born in New Mexico, which means her children should be U.S. citizens.

Their mother was an American citizen by birth, The children of an American citizen who are born aboard are also American citizens. That's why Ted Cruz is an American citizen. As well as children born to embassy staff and military personnel and to parents who just happen to be in another country when they have their child. This should be a short putt for any decent immigration lawyer.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

They have not demonstrated that. It's just their story. Thus, the hearings. The rule of law is a bitch, eh?

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

Still should be easy to prove.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

I would be happy if they succeed.

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
link   PJ    7 years ago

I think that if someone has an American parent and has served in the military thereby pledging their lives for this country then they should be given citizenship.  I'm not dismissing any crimes that they may have committed and if they haven't been punished for those crimes then they should be punished but as any US citizen would be punished.  It seriously does not make sense to me that we would not grant citizenship to those who have served in our military or have a parent who is a US citizen.  

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  PJ   7 years ago

I couldn't agree more.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

The law feels differently. They have NOT established their citizenship.

 
 
 
Randy
Sophomore Participates
link   Randy  replied to  Cerenkov   7 years ago

 It seriously does not make sense to me that we would not grant citizenship to those who have served in our military or have a parent who is a US citizen. 

The opinion expressed was that the writer (pj) believes that anyone who served in the US military should be allowed to be an American citizen based just on that. I agree with that idea. I know it is not the law, however I believe the law should be changed to reflect that idea.

 
 
 
Cerenkov
Professor Silent
link   Cerenkov  replied to  Randy   7 years ago

I wouldn't be opposed to such a change. 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
link   Perrie Halpern R.A.    7 years ago

This article is closing for lack of content and personal attacks. 

 
 
 
Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
link   Perrie Halpern R.A.    7 years ago

Again, I am closing this article. Please note the timestamp on this closure. Any further comments will be deleted. 

 
 

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