Army veteran deported to Mexico after drug conviction

A veteran who did two tours in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico after his citizenship was denied due to a felony drug conviction.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that U.S. Army veteran Miguel Perez-Montes was deported on Friday.

“On March 23, 2018, deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed Miguel Perez-Montes, 39, to Mexico. Perez-Montes boarded an ICE Air Operations flight at Gary (Indiana) International Airport and was flown to Brownsville, Texas. There, ICE officers escorted Perez-Montes across the U.S.-Mexico border and turned him over to Mexican authorities,” ICE spokeswoman Nicole Alberico said in a statement to The Hill. 

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“Perez-Montes has been in ICE custody since Sept. 23, 2016, when he was transferred from the Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg, Illinois, after he completed his prison sentence,” she said. 

Perez-Montes was sentenced to 15 years in prison and had his green card taken away after he was found guilty of delivering cocaine to an undercover cop, CNN reported. He had served half of his sentence when deportation proceedings took place. 

The decision to deport Perez-Montes has been condemned by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who is an Iraq War veteran. 

“This case is a tragic example of what can happen when national immigration policies are based more in hate than on logic and ICE doesn’t feel accountable to anyone,” Duckworth said in a statement on Saturday.

Perez-Montes reportedly arrived in the U.S. when he was 8 years old with his parents and sister who are now naturalized U.S. citizens. He has another sister who is an American citizen by birth. 

Perez-Montes said his conviction was the result of his PTSD, according to CNN.

Duckworth argued that Perez-Montes should at least have been given the chance to exhaust his legal options.

“I am appalled that Secretary [Kirstjen] Nielsen did not respond to my personal appeal asking merely that she review Miguel’s case and decide for herself whether deporting this brave combat Veteran was a good use of DHS’ limited resources,” she said.

Duckworth had sent a letter to Nielsen on Friday asking for the administration to review his case.