"When I was in Kuwait, in Kosovo, I was like everyone else who was there, putting their lives on the line," said Paye, who in the Army was an armored vehicle crewman. Now, like Coombs, he is facing deportation and is feeling betrayed. ![]() In 2008, he was convicted of six weapons-related offenses, including two involving firearms dealing, and served time in federal prison. He returned to New Jersey, where his family lives, to spend another year and a half with the Army National Guard. He joined the Army in 1998, serving in Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Fox and then in a NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. On the other side of the country, Dardar Paye is appealing his deportation case to the U.S. "The only time I left this country was when I was deployed overseas. "This is the only life I've known," he said. ![]() Circuit Court.Ĭoombs was stunned to realize he could be forced to leave the country for his crimes. He has been held in a San Diego immigration detention center for 22 months and is appealing to the 9th U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that his criminal convictions made him eligible for deportation, and he was turned over to ICE after serving his sentence. I thought I knew the consequences - I served my time," he said in a telephone interview. (AP Photo/US Marine Corps) US Marine Corps Marine Corps, he never thought one day he would be locked up in an immigration detention center and facing deportation from the country he had vowed to defend. 25 ** In this undated photo provided by the US Marine Corps, Rohan Coombs is shown. In 2008, he was busted for selling marijuana to an undercover officer while working as a bouncer in an Orange County bar. When his wife died in 2001 of diabetes-related complications, he started smoking marijuana again. "Things would be going well, then something would happen," he said. In 1992, he was court-martialed for possession of cocaine and marijuana with the intent to distribute, and was given 18 months of confinement and a dishonorable discharge. Instead, he got involved with drugs, and he got caught. His family was far away in New York, and he said "whining" to fellow Marines didn't seem an option. After the war, he felt depressed and anxious. He spent 10 months in the Persian Gulf and lost friends to combat, he said. The Center for Naval Analyses, a federally funded research and development center for the Navy and the Marine Corps, found that non-citizens are far more likely to complete their enlistment obligations successfully than their U.S.-born counterparts.Ĭoombs was one who did not make the grade. The rules, however, would not apply to immigration judges. Sentencing Commission rules will make it possible for federal judges to consider a criminal defendant's military service and mental and emotional condition to issue a lesser prison sentence. So-called veterans courts, which give them specialized treatment, now number more than 30, with a dozen more planned. ![]() This push comes as criminal courts are increasingly listening to arguments for leniency for veterans. Government officials say they have no tally but plan to begin tracking the numbers. To simply have these people deported is not a good way to thank them for their service."Īdvocates estimate that thousands of veterans have been deported or are in detention. "An incredible number of kids come back with an injury or illness that puts them in trouble with the law. ![]() "You come back from Iraq or Afghanistan today, you have put yourself on the line for this country," said Filner. Bob Filner, D-Calif., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, is looking into potential changes to the law so immigrants who serve in the military can avoid deportation. If they were POWs, they'd be considered American prisoners." "They served in our uniforms, in our wars. "These are people who served us - whether they are model human beings or not," said Coombs' attorney, Craig Shagin of Harrisburg, Pa.
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