Duckworth pushes to boost veterans deportation protections
Source: ROLL CALL CQ
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., is renewing a push for a package of bills aimed at protecting veterans and servicemembers from deportation, hoping that attention on the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign builds momentum for her legislation.
On Thursday afternoon, Duckworth will reintroduce three bills that would prohibit deporting veterans who are not violent offenders, allow non-violent veterans who have been deported to temporarily reenter the United States to get care at the Department of Veterans Affairs and track whether veterans or servicemembers are placed in immigration enforcement proceedings.
Duckworth, a National Guard veteran herself, has introduced all three bills in previous years with no success. But, this time, she is banking on lawmakers feeling more pressure to support the legislation as stories pile up of veterans getting swept up in the Trump administration’s immigration raids.
“It is unconscionable that Donald Trump — a man who has never served a day in his life — is once again targeting our nation’s immigrant service members and veterans in his inhumane ICE raids,” Duckworth said in a statement ahead of the bills’ introduction. “There is no higher betrayal to our heroes than to be deported by the same nation they sacrificed to defend — but this is what happens when our nation’s immigration policies are rooted more in hate than in logic.”
As of 2024, more than 40,000 noncitizens were serving in the military and another 115,000 noncitizen veterans were living in the United States, according to a Congressional Research Service report from that year. Military service has often been pitched to immigrants as a way to expedite citizenship, but in practice, immigrant veterans and servicemembers have described a cumbersome process.
Veterans being deported garnered some attention during the first Trump administration, but Democrats have leaned into the issue as the second Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation efforts. In September, several Democrats, including Duckworth, launched an investigation into how servicemembers, veterans and their families are being affected by the administration’s immigration policies.
It’s unclear exactly how many veterans have been detained by immigration authorities or deported since January, but anecdotal evidence has been stacking up that veterans, including some citizens, are getting caught up in the administration’s dragnet.
For example, two weeks ago, Duckworth’s staff met with George Retes, an Army veteran and U.S. citizen, to discuss his experience being detained for three days after an immigration raid at the California marijuana farm where he worked, her office said.
Other cases have also attracted considerable attention, such as Iraq War veteran Jose Barco, who was ordered deported in September, and Army veteran Sae Joon Park, who self-deported in June after being told a decade-old removal order that had been deferred was being revived.
In addition to banning the deportation of veterans who have not been convicted of a violent crime, Duckworth’s Veterans Visa and Protection Act of 2025 would create a new visa program allowing deported veterans to return to the United States and become legal permanent residents. Veterans who reenter through that visa program would also be eligible for citizenship and the restoration of any military and veterans benefits they had before being deported, according to the bill text.
Meanwhile, the Immigrant Veterans Eligibility Tracking System, or I-VETS, Act would require the Department of Homeland Security to track whether someone who has applied for immigration benefits or is in the process of being deported is a current service member or veteran.
And the Healthcare Opportunities for Patriots in Exile, or HOPE, Act would allow deported veterans to be paroled into the United States in order to get health care at a VA facility.
“Ahead of this Veterans Day, I’m once again reintroducing a package of common-sense bills that would help make it easier for them to become citizens, live with their families and ensure those who have already been deported can return to U.S. soil to access the life-saving VA care they earned and deserve, but may currently be barred from accessing,” Duckworth said in her statement. “These veterans fought for this country, and it’s past time we fight for them too.”
As of Thursday afternoon, Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine Corps veteran; Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, are co-sponsoring all three bills. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both Nevada Democrats, are also co-sponsoring the I-VETS Act, and Rosen is further co-sponsoring the Veterans Visa and Protection Act.
By: Rebecca Kheel
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