With a stroke of a pen, Gov. Newsom could keep a wounded Marine from being deported | Opinion

He was brought to the United States from El Salvador as a small child without a visa. He grew up mostly in California with legal residency arranged for him by his family, enlisted in the U.S. Marines as a 19-year-old in 1999 and eventually suffered a traumatic brain injury while fighting America’s enemies in Iraq. Jose Segovia has already served his time in state prison for crimes that he committed after his honorable discharge — crimes that may have been a consequence of the trauma he experienced in combat.

But unless a pardon from Gov. Gavin Newsom is bestowed on Segovia, or unless federal authorities extend a humanitarian vias that expires on May 19, Segovia may be deported back to El Salvador for the second time and despite his combat duty, his physical and emotional scars earned while wearing a Marines uniform and his commitment to serve a country he thought was his until it wasn’t.

“I’m gonna go crazy if this happens to me,” Segovia said by phone last week.

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There is no guarantee that a pardon from Newsom would prevent Segovia from being deported, but there is a good chance it could. Advocates for Segovia have been asking the Newsom administration for a pardon since 2019 to no avail and there is no indication if he has a chance at one.

In 2017, former Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned three veterans who had been deported to Mexico. In 2019, Newsom pardoned two Cambodian refugees facing deportation for past crimes but veteran advocates say Newsom has not yet pardoned a deported veteran of the U.S. military.

Some of those advocates will be in Sacramento on Tuesday, at the state Capitol, to lobby legislators for Segovia and other veterans who served the United States as part of a day-long focus on immigrant rights called “Immigrant Day of Action.”

Mercy for deported immigrants will be but one of the myriad issues raised by immigrant advocates in one-on-one meetings with legislators. If anything, the plight of Segovia deserves far more attention.

According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, more than 10,000 veteran offenders were in the Federal Bureau of Prisons system by the end of 2019.

There are no definitive numbers for how many veterans who run afoul of the law have been deported, only estimates.

“I would say that there are slightly over 500 veterans who have been deported,” said Robert Vivar, executive director of the San Diego-based Unified U.S. Deported Veterans group.

“But there could be thousands. Many veterans do not want to make it known that they were deported, and some don’t want to know anything about the country they were willing to die for.”

There is momentum for doing more to help deported veterans. Vivar established a partnership with the California District Attorney’s Association with the help of Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig and Chief Deputy DA Jonathan Raven. When Reisig was president of the association last year he formed a committee within the DA’s organization that reviews certain cases of deported veterans seeking legal relief.

“When we can assist, we do,” Raven said. “And it’s case by case.” Said Reisig: “It just struck me as unjust that someone could enlist to defend our country, serve and then be thrown out.”

Vivar said Segovia’s case isn’t being reviewed by the DA’s group because it would take too long and his current visa is about to expire.

The 42-year-old Segovia is receiving treatment in Long Beach for post-traumatic stress disorder, a brain injury and many other health issues exacerbated by the trauma of his military service. Segovia’s description of his combat experience in Iraq is harrowing, and he remembers being told he could secure his U.S. citizenship by joining the Marines.

“No one signs up to go to war,” he said.

His U.S. citizenship was never secured

At the time of his 1999 enlistment, Segovia was a legal resident. But his paperwork to become a U.S. citizen was never completed, in part because he was deployed overseas.

He said he was injured in Iraq in 2003, on the road to Baghdad with his unit. In April of that year, an explosive device detonated near him, knocking him cold in the middle of a firefight. He had already witnessed gruesome scenes of carnage inflicted on his fellow Marines and on Iraqi citizens virtually dismembered by the tools of warfare.

“Don’t ever ask me to eat a chicken drumstick,” he said while noting that he can’t eat any meat containing bones without triggering memories of human limbs ripped away from human skin. His subconscious mind tortures him at night, in quiet moments, in dreams, and in broad daylight.

“That smell comes back to me. So do the memories of mothers and fathers cursing me in their native language while I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“All that stuff messes you up.” After his honorable discharge, Segovia’s life in the United States was marked by a litany of substance abuse and toxic relationships. In 2019, the New York Times covered his first deportation and the crimes that put him on a flight back to El Salvador.

“His felony convictions included assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and narcotics possession, and he was sentenced to eight years in prison for corporal injury to a spouse,” the Times wrote. Segovia confirmed the accuracy of these crimes that led him to six years in prison and deportation.

According to the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) Veterans Justice Commission, about one-third of veterans say they have been arrested at least once since 2015.

“I’ve seen firsthand how some veterans struggle to adjust to life after the military, first as a returning service member myself and later as Deputy Administrator of the Veterans Administration under President Ronald Reagan and the 24th Secretary of Defense under President Barack Obama,” wrote Chuck Hagel, commission chair of the CCJ.

When Segovia was first deported in 2019, he said he was taken to El Salvador in chains and then left in a nation he hadn’t seen since he was five. Segovia was in El Salvador for three years, receiving some help from family, his mother and a growing group of advocates working to bring him back.

That was achieved last Thanksgiving when Segovia was allowed to return to Long Beach on a humanitarian visa so he could receive medical treatment through a vendor contracted by the Veterans Administration. But the visa was just a reprieve. His old crimes and prison time point him back to El Salvador unless Newsom or the federal government show Segovia mercy.

Segovia wears an ankle monitor but hopes for what other veterans take for granted: medical benefits earned by putting his life on the line in battle. Being brought to the United States when was a small child and never closing the loop on his citizenship papers because he was fighting a war declared by the U.S. government left Segovia vulnerable to deportation when his war demons caused him to intersect with law enforcement like so many other veterans.

“I fought for this country,” Segovia said. “I’ve been through a lot of problems that have dictated what has happened to me. I’m from this country and the right thing to do would be to let me stay in this country.”

If America turns its back on this particular soldier, it would only underscore how pointless and destructive the war in Iraq was. Our country would be throwing away a warrior whose heart was once useful to our government but whose wounds are inconvenient because he’s missing a piece of paper.

This Marine doesn’t deserve to be thrown away.

Jose Segovia deserves a pardon from Gov. Gavin Newsom.