SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — When Alex Murillo returned to the U.S. two years ago, he had been in what he calls “exile in Mexico” for 11 years.
After getting north of the border through the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego, the Gulf War veteran went back home to Phoenix where he grew up and where he had enlisted in the U.S. Navy after high school.
“Now I’m in another fight, a fight for a presidential pardon,” Murillo told Border Report in September 2023.
Murillo is still waiting for that pardon, which would clear his drug conviction and restore his legal resident status. It would also create a path toward citizenship.
He is one of 25 deported veterans who have been allowed to return to the U.S. in recent years and are now petitioning the White House for a pardon.
Former deported military veterans like Alex Murillo (left), Ruben Robles (center) and Jose Cardenas await pardons from President Biden. (Salvador Rivera/Border Report)
Murillo and the others returned home under temporary parole that must be renewed every two years.
“At any time when that parole expires it doesn’t have to be renewed, they can be deported back to Mexico, away from the country they were willing to defend,” said Robert Vivar, director of the Unified U.S. Deported Veterans Resource Center.
Vivar has been spearheading a drive and has been lobbying politicians in Washington to pass the Veterans Service Recognition Act, which would allow deported veterans to return and permanently remain in the U.S. clearing their convictions that led to their deportation in the first place.
The bill will also give legal residents, enlisting in the military, instant U.S. citizenship the minute they finish basic training.
But this legislation has been stalled in Congress since last year, and with the incoming Trump intent on cracking down on parole for immigrants, Vivar has been pushing recently for presidential pardons.
“There is no reason why these pardons should not happen,” Vivar said.
Not too long ago, Vivar was offered help from an unlikely source: U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan.
Tlaib has sent a personal letter to President Joe Biden asking him to grant the veterans those pardons.
“She’s the one who stepped up to get involved — I’m incredibly grateful to her because she being from Michigan, many thousands of miles away, has taken on that interest, that initiative to demand President Biden grant those pardons,” Vivar said. “That’s something we expected from our local elected officials here in San Diego, this is something happening in their own neighborhood, hopefully they will follow suit.”
Vivar says these pardons would go a long way in helping veterans like Jose Cardenas, who served in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division during the Vietnam War.
“When he was brought back on a humanitarian parole, three days later he had triple bypass surgery, if his pardon is not granted, he could find himself being deported back to Mexico where he won’t have access to the treatment that he deserves and is entitled to.”
Vivar said others may never get a chance to return, like Jesus “Chuy” Juarez, who died while waiting to be allowed back into the U.S.
Juarez joined the Marine Corps at 17 to fight in Vietnam.
“We brought him back, his ashes to be buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery with full military honors, that’s a disgrace, that’s an injustice,” Vivar said. “How can you bring them back in a body bag or in an urn, to be buried with full military honors and not allow them to live in the country they were willing to die for?”
Vivar is optimistic Biden will sign the pardons before leaving office.
“He has to do it.”
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