Politics
Deportation of Vietnam-Vet Brothers Postponed

Published January 05, 2011

Two Mexican-born Colorado brothers who served with the U.S. military in Vietnam will be able to remain in this country for another year.

Two Mexican-born Colorado brothers who served with the U.S. military in Vietnam will be able to remain in this country for another year after a judge decided to postpone until 2012 carrying out the deportation orders against them.

Valente and Manuel Valenzuela, ages 62 and 59, respectively, are among the 11 children of a New Mexico woman and her Mexican-born U.S. citizen husband.

The brothers live in Colorado Springs.

In 2005, Manuel was arrested for speeding. To his surprise, the police told him that his driver's license was not valid.

When he went to the Department of Motor Vehicles to clear the matter up, he learned that his license had been revoked because he did not have a valid Social Security Number.

Manuel thought that it was a mistake until he was informed that the U.S. Homeland Security Department had ordered the license revoked because doubts existed about his citizenship.

Despite numerous attempts by both brothers to prove that their parents were U.S. citizens and that they had arrived in the country legally, the Valenzuelas last year received deportation orders.

After several postponed hearings, on Tuesday Manuel appeared before Judge Donn L. Livingston in the Federal Court in Denver.

An estimated 80 people accompanied the Valenzuela brothers to the hearing to testify in favor of them and against their deportation.

"Manuel will have a new hearing in 2012, but the details are not yet available," said Hedy Trevino, the founder of the group Stop the Deportation of Vietnam Veterans.

"I thank God because today we were given more time to prepare ourselves for the future hearings, since the proceedings against Manuel and ... Valente are still going on," she added.

Trevino called the deportation orders against the brothers unfair and "shameful" and recalled that Valente joined the U.S. Army in 1967 and Manuel was a Marine from 1971-1974.

Both were decorated for their service in Vietnam.

But because Manuel was caught speeding in 2005 and due to a legal problem that Valente had in 1985, the brothers now are considered "foreign criminals" by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the offenses in question were only misdemeanors.

In prior interviews with local media, Valente explained that the 1985 incident, to which he pled guilty although he provided no details about it, was "the result of having returned home from the battlefield" and was linked to the serious medical problems he has had to deal with since serving in Vietnam.

Manuel, meanwhile, said that he did not understand why there is still any doubt about his legal situation in the United States. In fact, he said, he was so confident that his case would be resolved easily that during his first two hearings before a federal judge in Denver he showed up without an attorney.

The hearings, the apparent ambiguity of their immigration status and the sudden lack of valid documents has left the brothers "without any money, without a home and without even a bank account" because of the expenses they have incurred during the legal proceedings and because they don't have jobs, Manuel told local media.

Because of that, Valente considered suicide. And he probably would have killed himself if not for the intervention of his brother, who told him: "We have to put our uniforms on one more time, Valente. But this time, let's put them on for ourselves."

"If Homeland Security can do this to a veteran, what do you think they can do to a citizen? This is no way to treat people who fought for this country," Manuel said.

According to recent ICE figures, some 3,000 war veterans are facing deportation proceedings.

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