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He deported thousands of people. Later, he learned that he was an undocumented immigrant.

2023-02-26T19:51:45.243Z


Raúl Rodríguez, a former US Customs and Border Protection agent, is fighting deportation after investigators discovered he was not a US citizen.


Confessions of a former US border agent 2:31

San Benito, Texas (CNN) -- 

Raúl Rodríguez says he will never forget the moment he realized his life was built on a lie.

He was so shocked that he felt the blood rise to his feet.

In a matter of seconds, a family secret had shattered her view of the world and his place in it.

“That day will never leave my mind.

[…] It's a terrible feeling, ”she says.

It all started in April 2018, when federal investigators showed him a shocking document: a Mexican birth certificate with his name on it.

A conversation with his father soon after confirmed what Rodríguez had feared as soon as he saw the paperwork.

The American birth certificate that he had used for decades was fraudulent.

Rodriguez was not a US citizen.

He was an undocumented immigrant.

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Rodríguez says she had no idea she was born in Mexico before her father's confession that day, but she knew immediately how dire the situation was.

He had spent nearly two decades working for the United States government on the border.

By his estimates, he helped deport thousands of people while working for the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and, before that, the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Suddenly, she found herself on the opposite end of the spectrum, fighting for the chance to stay in the United States.

He lost a lot very quickly after that: his job at CBP, his friends in the police, his sense of self.

She hasn't seen his father since that day in April 2018 and says she never wants to speak to him again.

But now, almost five years later, Rodríguez, 54, says he realizes he also gained something amazing after that moment when he learned he was not a US citizen.

“It started as a nightmare,” he says.

"But then it turned out to be, holy crap, this is what I was meant to do."

For Rodríguez, a journey began that day.

And it ended up somewhere he didn't expect.

He heard her story and reached out to help.

At first, Diane Vega couldn't believe the words she saw on her Facebook feed.

In her advocacy work helping deported veterans and veterans at risk of deportation as vice president of Repatriate Our Patriots, she had seen firsthand how cruel and confusing the US immigration system can be. But this was unlike any story I'd ever heard before: "Someone who thought they were born here, raised here, served in the Army, and then told, 'You're not an American.'"

And how, he wondered, could someone who had worked for CBP face deportation?

Vega, who resides in El Paso, Texas, was not the only one surprised by the story of the former immigration inspector who learned that he was undocumented.

Rodríguez's plight drew the attention of local and national media.

Many responses to the coverage were unsympathetic, Vega says, especially in border communities.

"They'd say, 'This is what you get for going against your own people.'"

But Vega saw the story differently.

She had served in the Army.

Rodriguez had too.

Prior to her career working for CBP and its predecessor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Rodríguez was in the Navy.

He served from 1992 to 1997 and was stationed in Jacksonville and San Diego, with deployments to Iceland and the Persian Gulf as a member of the Navy Military Police.

As a master-at-arms in the Navy, Rodríguez says he was often tasked with taking other sailors to the brig.

He is proud of his military service and looks forward to doing more to help veterans.

(Credit: Catherine E. Shoichet/CNN)

Anyone who has served in the Army, Vega says, knows what it's like to have to follow orders and put your personal feelings aside.

And for her, Rodríguez's work at CBP was no different.

“It was his job,” she says.

“Some jobs aren't the best, but we all have to follow orders.

[…] It was always for the defense of this country.

It was with the intent to take care of the United States and its people.”

So when others turned their backs on Rodríguez, Vega stepped forward.

In their first phone conversation, she heard how lonely he sounded.

“Those she thought were her brothers turned their backs on her,” she says.

"He couldn't travel out of his own backyard"

Anita Rodríguez cries remembering those days.

It was devastating, she says, to see her husband sink into depression as he lost the support of so many people and institutions that he counted on.

“There were some days when I would leave the house and wonder, 'Will he be okay when we come home?

What are we going to find?'” she says, her voice cracking with emotion.

Anita Rodríguez works for the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and met her husband when they were both preparing to be inspectors for the immigration agency then known as INS.

Since then, I had seen him put so many years into his work and earn high praise as well.

In 2006, officials flew him to Washington to receive an integrity award for his work on a smuggling raid.

Anita and Raúl Rodríguez say their family has been fighting as Raúl Rodríguez's immigration case remains in limbo.

Advocates helping deported veterans, they say, stood by them when other friends turned away.

(Credit: Catherine E. Shoichet/CNN)

The past few years, he says, have brought a dramatically different reality to his family.

“He had traveled all over the world for the United States,” she says, “and yet he couldn't travel outside of his own backyard.

She couldn't get past a [Border Patrol] checkpoint.”

Rodríguez knew that deportation to Mexico would mean leaving behind his wife, four children and five grandchildren, and leaving home was not worth the risk.

As he fought for the chance to stay with his family, people he once considered colleagues became people he feared.

He lost his identity when he lost his job

Rodríguez says that years of federal background checks never turned up his Mexican birth certificate.

It only came to light when Rodríguez filed a visa application for his brother.

Records show that prosecutors declined to bring a case against Rodriguez after investigators with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General were unable to find any evidence that he knowingly submitted a false birth certificate to the government.

That meant he wouldn't face criminal charges, but his job was still in jeopardy.

After putting him on leave during the investigation, Rodriguez says CBP fired him in 2019 because he was not a US citizen and therefore no longer qualified to work as an agent.

In a statement to CNN, CBP said Rodriguez is no longer an agency employee, but declined to comment further on his case.

“All allegations involving CBP employees are handled uniformly in accordance with applicable Department of Homeland Security policy,” the statement said.

Shortly after losing his job, Rodríguez got a tattoo on his left arm.

He displays a Mexican flag dividing his CBP badge in two.

"Being a Mexican citizen," Rodríguez says, "broke my career and destroyed it."

Rodriguez is no longer working and relies on disability benefits he receives due to a head injury sustained during his time in the Navy.

He remains proud of the integrity award he earned on the job.

He still has it on a shelf in his living room.

And save a photo of him shaking hands with the CBP commissioner that day on his phone.

But he says that many of the friends he thought he had made during his years at the agency have disappeared.

“They abandoned me because they thought it was illegal,” he says.

The integrity award that Raúl Rodríguez won during his tenure at Customs and Border Protection is still so important to him that it is displayed in his living room, along with other awards and badges.

(Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas)

Gone are the texts and calls that used to keep your phone buzzing.

At a local restaurant, someone he had previously invited to dinner at his house quietly turned him down.

“He just turns around, lowers his head, and doesn't look up as he walks by,” Rodríguez says.

It left him feeling lost and betrayed.

So many things he thought were safe, he says, turned out not to be.

Rodríguez realized that he too was changing.

“Everything I did revolved around law enforcement.

I lost everything... That's what I thought it was.

That was my identity,” she says.

"They take that idea from you, you're back at square one."

He found unexpected allies in a cause he had never heard of before.

Raúl and Anita Rodríguez had decades of experience working in the US immigration system, but meeting Vega presented problems they never knew existed.

“We were really surprised.

We had never heard of a veteran being deported,” says Anita Rodríguez.

The Biden administration announced a new initiative to help deported veterans in 2021, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stated at the time that officials were “committed to bringing back military service members, veterans and their direct relatives who were unjustly expelled and guarantee that they receive the benefits to which they are entitled”.

Since then, the Department of Homeland Security says it has helped more than 65 veterans to return.

But it's still unclear exactly how many US military veterans the United States has deported over the years or how many remain abroad.

A 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office found that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not consistently adhered to its own policies on veteran cases or tracked how many veterans had been removed from the country.

As a CBP agent and an inspector for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Rodríguez estimates that he helped deport thousands of people.

(Credit: Verónica G. Cárdenas)

Advocates say more needs to be done to connect deportees to the Biden administration's assistance program and support veterans once they return to the United States.

Vega estimates that there could be thousands of veterans who are still out there and not getting enough help, including veterans who have been deported and veterans who are in immigration detention fighting their cases.

The Department of Homeland Security says information about resources for returning veterans is available on its website, noting that a May 2022 policy directive requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to consider military service when deciding how to handle cases

Most of the veterans who faced deportation were honorably discharged from the Army, but were later charged with crimes after returning to civilian life.

Rodríguez's case was different;

he had not been convicted of any crime and he did not even know he was an immigrant when he joined the Armed Forces.

But Raúl and Anita Rodríguez say that in Vega and other advocates for deported veterans they found the sense of community they had lost.

“It's incredible, these people, the love we feel from them and the acceptance,” says Anita Rodríguez.

“They made things happen when we were so lost.

People were willing to help him without even knowing him."

Raúl Rodríguez knew he wanted to return the favor.

He realized that his experience as someone who had worked within the immigration system could be valuable to other veterans trying to return to the United States or become US citizens.

The idea of ​​contributing to that cause excited him.

And he started volunteering to help Repatriate Our Patriots with other cases that came up.

But he also remembered a fear that haunted him: Before long, he, too, could end up becoming a deported veteran.

As his day in court approached, Vega told him, "You're not alone."

Vega knew that Rodríguez, like so many others, was fighting for his life.

And he knew that he needed all the allies he could get.

He told others in his organization about the case.

They reached out to legislators for help on his behalf, encouraged him to register with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for medical care, and did everything they could to support him.

“We were really worried and trying to plan ahead if he was deported,” says Danitza James, executive director of Repatriate Our Patriots.

Advocates feared that his previous work for CBP would make Rodríguez a target for cartels and other criminal organizations south of the border.

They worked to determine where he could safely live.

And as Rodríguez prepared to attend a key immigration court hearing in November, Vega tried to encourage him.

“Whatever the outcome, you will get through it.

We will find a way to appeal it,” she told him.

“Just don't lose faith.

You're not alone".

Later that day, Vega says that Rodríguez called her with exciting news.

The judge had said she planned to rule in his favor and grant cancellation of removal, a key step that would allow Rodríguez to become a legal resident of the United States.

But there was still a catch: The law allows only 4,000 of those cases to be approved each year, so once again, Rodríguez would have to wait.

It could be years before you have a document stating that you are in the country legally, and years after that before you can become a US citizen.

Every day, Rodríguez checks the immigration court website for more information.

And every day he sees the same word that describes his case: "pending."

He knows that this is his best chance to stay in the country;

a previous application for citizenship through his wife was rejected.

For years, he says his case has faced unnecessary delays that made him feel like he was being punished even as he tried to do the right thing.

“All I asked was to be treated like everyone else.

I served this country for so many years.

I think I deserve something, at least the chance to stay in it, ”she says.

His November hearing gave him a break, but it's hard for Rodríguez to celebrate.

His eldest child, who was born in Mexico, also lost her US citizenship when Rodríguez's Mexican birth certificate was discovered.

He received temporary parole to stay in the United States because of his father's military service, but still struggles to find work and fears being separated from his wife and children.

Rodríguez says it has been devastating to see his son suffer.

"Even though it's not my fault, I still feel guilty that he's going through this because of me, because of my status," Rodríguez says.

You are well aware of the emotional and financial costs of living in limbo, even with the prospect of a court decision in your favor on the horizon.

“I'm still limited in what I can do,” Rodríguez says.

"I still have to look over my shoulder."

But Rodríguez is also beginning to look to the future.

His fight against deportation opened his eyes to things he hadn't seen before

In her spare time these days, Rodriguez is doing what she can to support efforts to bring deported veterans back to the United States and help those who recently returned find their footing.

He also tries to help advocates track down veterans in immigration custody.

“He has changed,” Vega says.

"There's still some weight on his shoulders, but it's not like before."

After deporting people from the United States for years, Rodríguez says, "now I'm trying to bring them back."

Once his own immigration case is resolved, Rodríguez says he looks forward to working more directly with veterans inside and outside the United States to help them navigate the immigration system.

“Being able to travel will allow me to do that,” he says.

Although he has had to avoid major trips for years, Rodríguez has been on a different kind of trip.

“I was blind,” he says, describing his life before he began his own immigration trial.

"I didn't see what was happening."

He still feels that immigration laws must be followed.

But she says she now realizes that a lot of people who are trying to do things the right way are stuck.

“I've been on both sides, and I sympathize with them even more now because of what I went through.

And now I know what they've been through,” she says.

"It's not, 'Once you make it, you're good.' You still have to fight while you're here."

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Above all, says Rodríguez, veterans who fought for the United States should not face deportation or suffer in hospitals abroad.

“If [the government] treats its own patriots like this, can you imagine what it will do to its people?

It's a shame, ”he says.

The Department of Homeland Security says the government is committed to helping veterans access benefits and services, and helping members of the Armed Forces become citizens once they are eligible.

More than 10,600 members of the Armed Forces became US citizens last year, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said.

“We are deeply grateful for the service and sacrifice of military service members, veterans and their families,” the spokesperson said.

But Rodríguez says his experience left him feeling discarded and abandoned by the government he served, and he says he has met other veterans who share similar sentiments.

The situation infuriates him.

But sitting at the table in his Texas home — about 10 miles from the Mexican border — he smiles as a text message appears on his screen.

It's from a deported veteran who recently returned to the United States.

"Hello brother. [...] We all pray for the suspension [of your removal]. I hope you and your family are well."

After more than a year of talking and texting, they plan to meet up in person soon.

It is a reminder of the new friendships Rodríguez has forged and the new mission he has found.

Border AgentUndocumentedVeteran

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2023-02-26

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