Published: Feb. 9, 2012 Updated: Feb. 10, 2012 9:51 p.m.

U.S. veteran avoids deportation

BY CINDY CARCAMO / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

During a good portion of his life, Louis Alvarez was a heroin addict, racking up criminal drug offenses. The legal resident from Mexico eventually faced deportation.

However, it was his time in the Marines that led immigration officials to grant him U.S. citizenship two years ago, despite the deportation order.

Alvarez enlisted at 17 and completed two years of service as a Marine Corps private in the late 1970s. The military, the 53-year-old said, was a way out of gang life in Santa Ana, teaching him mechanical skills and allowing him to meet comrades he'd keep for years.

After his service, some of those comrades, along with old Santa Ana friends, used his house to crash and do heroin. Alvarez tried it one day and became addicted. He'd go to rehab, clean up, quit for months and then use, again – a cycle he'd repeat for decades.

In his mind, Alvarez said, he was a U.S. citizen. It was a big reason his mother signed off on his enlistment in the Marines because he was too young to do so by himself.

It wasn't until 2007, that he was told differently.

Alvarez said he'd been clean for some time when a Sheriff's deputy pulled him over in 2006 for making an illegal U-turn in Aliso Viejo. Deputies found drug residue in his auto, Alvarez said. While Alvarez was charged with a misdemeanor drug offense, officials flagged immigration authorities.

"It was a rude awakening," he said of learning he could be deported. "I felt bitter because had I gone to combat and died as a legal permanent resident, I would've been granted U.S. citizenship posthumously. But because I survived I'm being penalized?"

In Aug 2007, he was put in immigration detention in El Centro. Immigration officials had combined his misdemeanor charge with his prior drug offenses, bumping his charge up to a felony under immigration law – which made him deportable.

His deportation was ordered four months later. He dismissed his attorney and read up on immigration law and filing an appeal, citing case law and throwing out motions to delay his deportation to Mexico.

At the same time, he applied for U.S. citizenship. Even though he was considered a felon in the eyes of immigration officials and was in deportation proceedings, Alvarez was eligible because he'd served in the military and had a clean criminal record in the past year.

However, legal immigrants who are considered aggravated felons under immigration law are banned from applying for citizenship. This includes military servicemen, according to the law.

Alvarez was sworn in as a citizen in July 2010.

"I never thought the day would come," the Orange County resident said, tearing up. "Wow.... I'll never forget that day."

Now, as a leader of the Banished Veterans group, he wants to help others who face deportation and is studying to become a paralegal.

He said he cut ties with his past life and anyone who was part of it. That's why, he said, he doesn't want a recent picture of himself in the paper.

He knows some will be critical of his story.

"The first thing I would ask is, 'Did you serve?'" he said. "If you've served I would bow my head in shame and remain silent. If you haven't served, you know what? I don't respect you."

Contact the writer: 714-796-7924 or ccarcamo@ocregister.com or
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