LULAC Immigrant Veterans Campaign Scores Huge Win
Deportations Halted for Families of Service Members and Veterans
November 15, 2013Contact: Paloma Zuleta, pzuleta at lulac.org, (202) 812-4477
Washington, D.C. - Following LULAC’s extremely successful immigrant veteran postcard campaign which delivered 15,000 postcards to Congress earlier this week calling for passage of comprehensive immigration reform and for support of the families of immigrant veterans, the Department of Homeland Security has announced on Friday that they will halt the deportations of family members of veterans and active duty service members.
“Just this Tuesday, LULAC and the Hispanic Federation held a press call featuring Air Force veteran Jesus Magaña whose sister was placed in deportation proceedings while he was serving in Iraq,” stated LULAC National Executive Director Brent Wilkes. “Jesus’s story was very compelling and yet at the same time it is the same story of thousands of U.S. service members. Ultimately, he had to leave the service in order to return home to address the needs of his family.”
Today, USCIS issued a policy memorandum that outlined the new policy, which allows spouses, children, and parents of certain active duty, reserve, and former U.S. service members to parole in place. LULAC will continue to push for comprehensive immigration reform so that these families and millions of others like them are able to become permanent legal residents and eventually citizens.