Vet criminals to be deported
The Washington Post has a long-ass article on veterans who are being deported to their home countries because they broke the law after they were discharged;
Once [Marine Milton Tepeyac] served in the Kuwaiti desert in a recon battalion, a highly trained grunt monitoring the movements of Saddam Hussein’s military across the border in Iraq. Later he ran a seafood business in Phoenix, drove a BMW, and owned a five-bedroom house with a billiards room and a pool.
But then, with his business foundering in the 2008 recession, he was offered $1,000 to help with a drug deal that turned out to be a police sting. He was convicted of felony “possession of marijuana for sale” and was sentenced to four years in an Arizona prison. When he completed his time, he was deported from the country where he had lived since he was 3.
I don’t remember Iraqis crossing any borders except Kuwait’s but whatever. If you deal with illegal drugs then you should take what you’re given, that you made the deal with federal agents doesn’t mitigate your intentions.
MCPO Ret. in TN sends a link to a similar story from Arizona, in regards to John “mental plate” Ferron. Apparently, because he was an illegal alien, Ferron stole someone’s identification in order to join the Navy. He says that the VA gave him treatment after he was discharged despite his admission of that fact;
[T]o the Navy, Ferron was known as Clyde Anthony Steele.
An identity he says he got from a friend who gave him a copy of his birth certificate. “He says, ‘You keep it. You will need it more than I will.'”
According to documents from Veterans Affairs, Ferron was honorably discharged two years later.
“I have a mental plate in my head,” he says.
Ferron claims he came clean, telling the VA he enlisted using someone else’s identity. “The VA told me ‘don’t worry about it. That happens all the time.'”
So for 40 years, Ferron continued to receive treatment from the VA.
But in 2007, benefits were cut when he was convicted for six different counts of identity theft and fraud charges for using the name Clyde Anthony Steele.
He spent four years in prison. And now he wants forgiveness. “I did my time. I paid for my mistake.”
But his criminal history doesn’t stop there, Ferron was arrested several times for drug related offenses.
So he was just a crook, and since he only did two years in the service, I’m guessing he and the Navy didn’t part ways amicably. The thing is, just “being” a veteran isn’t enough. You have to live a good life to honor those who didn’t get discharged and no one understands that more than we understand it. We have to live lives worthy of their sacrifice and since civilians are so quick to judge all of us by the actions of a few, we owe it to each other to not deal drugs and stuff. There must be a reason that these people didn’t get US citizenship, so let that be just another of their shortcomings. If they wanted to stay here, they should have taken steps to guarantee that for them.
Category: Veterans Issues
Step 1. Don’t be a criminal
Step 2. See step 1.
/duh. I’ve managed to avoid it for 50 years.
might point out that 40 years ago was in the ’70s, and draftees only did a two year hitch. By ’76 if you volunteered it was a minimum 3 year enlistment, but I had heard you could enlist for only 2 years in a ‘for the good of the service’ status (taking whatever MOS they were short of). Doesn’t excuse his later actions but his 2 years could have been honorable.
While I do think serving in this country’s military should fast track someone for citizenship, military service shouldn’t be a protection against deportation if you commit a crime. Meanwhile, all this bemoaning over these men’s self induced plight and not one word on the Afghani interpreter Sgt Meyer is trying to get a well earned visa for…
The Post’s treatment of the deported Veterans is highly sympathetic to them. Of course, they cherry pick the ‘induced’ drug dealer and the but-really-he–gave-me-his-bith certificate guy to use as examples. Unfortunately, there were other examples to pick of the nastier variety. Overlooked is the question of why these guys didn’t become US citizens somewhere along the line. Whatever. One doesn’t acquire a halo—or automatic citizenship– for having served and I couldn’t agree more that living a decent and honorable life post service is one way to respect those who never lived to be discharged.
Illegal aliens who commit identity theft to enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces have committed a federal felony in doing so in the first place. I remember a Mexican female illegal alien who committed ID theft to enlist in the Army and did a tour in OIF. She got on the victimhood sisterhood media circuit to sell her sob story after she was busted and was being processed for deportation. Sorry, lady, by committing identity theft and fraudulent enlistment, you were a high-level security risk from the get-go, you get no sympathy from me…
VET criminals to be deported …
OK … and the problem is?
Carry on!
@2 A lot of those 2 years in the late 70s were 2x4s with 2 active and 4 reserve/guard…..
On topic, criminal activity has consequences whether you are a veteran or not. Drug dealing is still a crime, until that legal obstacle is overcome the practice of drug dealing or smuggling has a rather large downside with a significant loss of freedom or life….identity theft to serve the country and then to steal goods and services hardly qualifies you as a choir boy whose presence in the nation is for the benefit of society at large…
2 sh1tbags receiving their due justice both actual and karmic….nothing more, nothing less.
Play stupid games,
Win stupid prizes,
Get your criminal ass deported.
BTW … my father in order to obtain citizenship had to do the following:
1. Conscripted service in Army of the US for 2 years.
2. Service in Korea for 12 months.
3. Maintain a productive and perfect work, social, civic, and community involvement record.
4. Remain conscripted in the IRR for additional 4 years.
5. Read, write, and speak English perfectly.
6. Know and understand US history, the Declaration of Independence, US Constitution, and Bill of Rights.
7. Be capable and demonstrate the Pledge of Alligiance, National Athem and other patriot songs.
8. Pass a rigorous written exam.
9. Be interviewed by a panel presided over by a federal judge.
10. Process all the paperwork and forms without an immigration lawyer.
After all that was completed he recieved 2 documents: his Citizenship Certificate and Honorabel Discharge Certificate from “Army of the United States”.
VoV – thanks for the clarification. By ’76 I think they all added up to 8 -3 active/5 reserve or 4 active/four reserve.
STILL doesn’t exuse theor later actions; for any who would think vet status alone as an all-purpose mitigant: please look up McVeigh, Timothy.
I am all for granting citizenship to those that defend this country.
But rules are rules, laws are laws and integrity and responsibility are essential.
I had an RI tell me years ago that earning the Tab was the easy part; upholding the standards and expectations for the rest of your life was the hard part.
Infantry is not just a job, its a lifestyle.
“Overlooked is the question of why these guys didn’t become US citizens somewhere along the line.”
Bingo. They had plenty of time to get that done. The fact that they didn’t give a shit shows it meant nothing to them anyway. If they had gotten the citizenship they would be allowed to stay in country afterwards.
One of the good guys that never got a chance to be a US citizen was Mike Strank, who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima.
I have never understood why we need illegals in our military?can someone please enlighten me!!There has always been more then enough Americans to fill the need,except during the war in Southeast Asia.We had a kid from somewhere outside of Manila on my second pump into Iraq,I could never understand what the fuck he wa saying his English was so poor. All he wanted was to get out,become a American and bring his family of 50 over to live in Cali.System is broke.
After reading the article I have to say that I feel a little sorry for Tepeyac. He served honorably, he could have easily gotten his citizenship while serving (which would have eliminated the possibility of deportation), and his crime was not especially heinous. But Ferron? I don’t feel bad about him at all.
@13 – Tepeyac did have a green card, so he wasn’t illegal. And his story about thinking that citizenship came automatically with military service rings true; it’s commonly-held “folk wisdom” that I’ve heard from several sources in the past. The problem with folk wisdom is that people hear it, rely on it, and are screwed when it turns out to be untrue.
“Tepeyac was busted twice, for possession of cocaine and then drug paraphernalia, and placed on probation”
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/deporting-veterans-8882
Also, the ribbons listed in the WaPo article don’t match up with his deployments (unless they left them out, he should have more). Plus, I’m always skeptical of anyone claiming Recon/Ranger/Seal these days. As my Gunny used to say “you’d think we have divisions of special forces and no cooks or motor T guys”
@13 – We had one of them in our unit, except we called him “Chief” (HMC). He was a POS, and couldn’t understand him either. Useless. He was eventually sent home in May ’03, about 1 1/2 months after the invasion.
Jonn, spam at # 16. At my Grandson’s graduation from Basic Training At Fort Still, 12 from different countries became citzens of the USA. It was of the progam in front of 500 give or takea few in the lecture hall. No reason for those not to become citrens . Joe
I never have a problem with immigrants wanting to serve. I also think that if they commit a crime they should suffer the same punishment. These guys weren’t forward thinking enough to get their citizenship before they committed their crimes, sorry sucks to be them. Hell at the rate shit is going all they have to do is not leave, and they will be granted it.