The immigrant was a US soldier. Now he faces deportation | Donald Trump News

On Thursday morning, a small group of lawyers gathered outside the United States courthouse in San Diego, California.

One of them pointed to a picture of a young man in a United States Army uniform, three gold medals pinned to his chest.

“This is my brother, Benito Miranda Hernandez, a US Navy veteran,” said James Smith, founder of Black Deported Veterans of America.

Smith and other advocates organized the protest on behalf of Hernandez, who was at large at the time, serving time in an immigration detention center.

Taken from Mexico to the US as a baby, Hernandez had completed three tours of duty with the US military during the Iraq war. His military service was to be his path to citizenship.

But now, Hernandez is one of a number of refugee fighters being deported under US President Donald Trump.

“These men and women were promised citizenship if they served,” Smith said. “Help this brother come home.”

Trump has promised to prioritize immigrants with criminal records as he pushes for more deportations.

But U.S. military activists say veterans are the most vulnerable, due to their overrepresentation in prisons and jails. Many have reported suffering from mental illness after their work.

For example, Hernandez said he had a hard time getting back into civilian life after leaving the military. But on June 14, he ended up serving years in prison on drug charges.

While he was waiting for his mother, Maria Miranda, to pick him up, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him.

Later Miranda and her other son arrived. That day he spent many hours looking for him, not knowing where he went.

“He was doing things the right way,” Miranda told Al Jazeera in Spanish. “He had so many hopes, so many dreams.”

Hernandez has been transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. He faces deportation, even though he received his green card to become a permanent citizen earlier this year. He previously spoke to Al Jazeera about his experience in an article published in April.

Hernandez’s arrest is part of a series of events under the Trump administration.

Although the actual number of deported soldiers is impossible to download – ICE has already failed to collect the people who arrest them, as it is required – several representatives told Al Jazeera that they have seen an increase in the deportation of US soldiers during the second term of Trump.

The New York Times reported in March that at least 34 veterans had been placed on deportation charges last year.

Some stories have received media attention. But attorneys say some veterans have avoided the spotlight, fearing it could jeopardize their immigration cases.

“As ICE raids continue and resettle across the country, there will be people who are non-US citizens who unfortunately can fall through the cracks,” said Robert Vivar, founder of the Tijuana-based United States Deported Veterans Resource Center.

Veterans, like immigrants across the country, have been detained while following the immigration process, according to Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, an advocacy group.

They are often cited as having legal documents or cases that have not been abandoned. James said he was in contact with six soldiers arrested by ICE in 2026 alone.

“Our government, it doesn’t see any value in the work that immigrants have,” James, who is also a former soldier and a prominent citizen, told Al Jazeera. “They honestly see us as outcasts.”

For years, the U.S. military has recruited immigrants to serve in foreign wars to help combat labor shortages.

Employers often tell immigrants that military service offers a shortcut to permanent citizenship.

Theoretically, it should. But after deployment, many incoming soldiers, like Hernandez, reported delays in deployment.

By the time Hernandez was called for his citizenship interview in 2006, it had been two years since his last job. He had a criminal conviction at the time – and his citizenship case was dismissed.

The failure to protect immigrant veterans represents the government’s biggest failure to follow through on its military policy, according to advocates like Smith.

“The United States government is failing to answer for what it has done,” Smith told Al Jazeera. “You infiltrate us and rob us of a part of our humanity so that we can kill without consequence.”

“So, when you get out, there’s no way that prepares you for life in the civilian world.”

Several bills to protect immigrant veterans are also being debated in Congress. But employers continue to fight immigrants with promises of fast-track citizenship.

Hernandez’s next steps are not yet known. At Thursday’s meeting, an attorney who works for a local nonprofit told Smith and other advocates that the group would be interested in supporting Hernandez’s case.

Meanwhile, Hernandez’s mother has been trying to stay happy.

Miranda takes her phone calls from the ICE detention center and sees her during a visit on Saturday. But the two-hour drive from Anaheim to San Diego is tough on his health.

“On Saturday, when I saw him, he was very upset,” Miranda told Al Jazeera.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to cause you any more trouble. I don’t want to hurt you anymore, mom. I’m doing good. I pray for myself,'” Miranda recalled through tears.

“He clipped the wings of the bird, and all the hopes he had. He threw them in the trash.”