Godfrey Wade, a Jamaican-born veteran, bounced a check when renewing his vehicle registration in 2008. He pled to a misdemeanor, paid a fine, and thought the matter was settled. He had come to the United States lawfully as a teenager in 1975, served overseas in the Army, and was honorably discharged.
Last year, the 66-year-old grandfather was pulled over during a routine traffic stop in Georgia, detained by ICE, and deported back to Jamaica. All stemming from the bounced check.
In October, a judge reopened his case, which may overturn his deportation and allow him to return home to the U.S.
It was an ordinary Saturday in July when Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez, his wife Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, and their six-year-old daughter left their military housing subdivision at Fort Bliss, Texas, to run some errands at Walmart. On their way back home, unmarked vehicles suddenly surrounded their Dodge Durango, blocking them in.
The young girl started sobbing as ICE handcuffed her mother, detaining Villafranca-Trejo for a missed court appearance in 2017 that the couple says she was never notified about.
Two months later, Villafranca-Trejo was deported to Honduras, leaving Sgt. Turcios Juárez struggling to care for their daughter alone, while juggling his military obligations.
Last year, U.S. Marine Steve Rios’s parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, stopped by Camp Pendleton, as they did every weekend, to pick up his pregnant younger sister and her husband, also a Marine. Except this time, ICE agents were waiting for them.
They detained Rios’ parents, who had been in the U.S. for 30 years and had no criminal record, and deported his father to Mexico without a hearing. When they took him away, he was wearing his lucky red shirt that said, “Proud dad of a US Marine.”
A judge recently ordered the federal government to return Esteban Rios to the United States immediately, and he was reunited with his family.
For generations, immigrants like these have answered the call to serve in the U.S. military, putting their lives in danger to protect our country and the freedoms we hold dear. Now those freedoms are being taken from them.
Since taking office in 2025, the Trump Administration has systematically rolled back immigration protections for U.S. military veterans, their families, and the families of active-duty service members as part of its mass deportation agenda.
Going after immigrant veterans and military families is disgraceful. It forsakes the promise to always “support our troops” that we make to every patriot who honorably serves our country in uniform. Abandoning veterans and military families because they were born in a foreign land is a betrayal of our own deepest values.
“Veterans know better than anyone else the price of freedom, for they’ve suffered the scars of war. We can offer them no better tribute than to protect what they have won for us.”
- President Ronald Reagan, 1983, in a radio address to the nation
THE BIG PICTURE
U.S. citizenship is not required to join the military; only lawful permanent residency. Normally, when a non-citizen immigrant joins the U.S. military, ICE considers their service “a significant mitigating factor” when deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement against them or their immediate family members. As of April 2025, that’s no longer the case. ICE rescinded this decades-long policy and replaced it with a new policy that has allowed the government to detain, and in some cases deport, veterans, their families, and active-duty service members’ families at alarming rates.
Investigations by lawmakers and journalists uncovered that not only are immigrant service members, veterans, and their families no longer afforded previously promised protections, but they are likely being targeted by a coordinated campaign between the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
A report released in August said the two agencies appeared to be collaborating to “identify and detain non-citizens during routine check-ins, visits, and drop-offs at military installations — converting military bases into ‘traps’ for individuals this Administration deems deportable, all while DoD continues to recruit new service members with the promise of immigration protections.”
Even though the ICE policy has changed, military recruiters continue to mislead new immigrant service members by promising them a swift path to citizenship, as well as protections against detention and deportation for their immediate family members who are not U.S. citizens.
BY THE NUMBERS
The administration has not been forthcoming with the exact numbers of veterans detained or deported to date, nor does it keep regular records of how many family members of active-duty service members and veterans ICE has detained or deported.
Pieced together by reporting from journalists and congressional inquiries, here is what we do know:
125 — veterans detained by ICE, as of March 2026, most without active criminal warrants
248 — relatives of veterans ICE placed into deportation proceedings, as of March 2026
50+ — spouses and parents of active-duty service members detained by ICE, as of August 2026
6+ — spouses and parents of active-duty service members deported by ICE, as of August 2026
26,708 — active-duty immigrants in the U.S. armed forces, as of July 2025
20,350 — immigrants serving in the National Guard and Reserves, as of July 2025
115,000 — veterans who are immigrants, as of 2022
4.5% — percentage of all U.S. military veterans who are foreign-born
IMPACT ON VETERANS
For decades, there was bipartisan consensus that veterans, their immediate family, and the family members of active-duty military should be shielded from deportation. However, under the current administration, they are being detained while they work through the legal processes available to them. Sometimes they are deported without hearings or legal representation.
This will likely have a negative impact on recruitment, retention, and morale. Our veterans, active-duty service members, and their families may fear that routine interactions could lead to detention or deportation, and therefore they may avoid seeking medical care, housing, support services, or accessing bases. This could also undermine military preparedness, as service members with family in detention might struggle with the emotional upheaval, and may lack caretakers for their children while they’re on duty. Some may have no choice but to delay deployments, take leave, or quit the military altogether because of the undue burdens these new policies have placed on them.
Without immigrants, our country is less safe. The Department of Defense has acknowledged the vital role immigrant service members play in defending our national security, including the language, cultural, and regional knowledge that gives them unique insights into our adversaries’ capabilities and intentions.
TAKE ACTION
Public backlash, media attention, and legal aid have resulted in ICE releasing some veterans and family members who were detained, and prevented others from being deported. It’s important to keep up the pressure.
Here are a few things you can do to support our immigrant troops:
Donate to immigration attorneys. And if you know a military family at risk, help them find legal counsel before they walk into a USCIS appointment, because several families have been detained at these routine check-ins.
Spread the word about detained veterans and families of active-duty service members. Public attention helps get media attention, which then puts pressure on administration officials. When the detention of military spouses started to draw backlash, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Director Markwayne Mullin stepped in to secure a handful of releases.
Call your members of Congress, especially those on the Armed Services and Veterans Affairs committees. Ask them to support and reintroduce the PROTECT Military Families Act, as well as a package of bills containing the Veterans Visa and Protection Act, HOPE Act, and I-VETS Act.
Reach out to your local American Legion or VFW post and ask them to take a stance to protect immigrant veterans.
Amplify the voices of immigrants, veterans, and active-duty family members. If you know a family that wants their story told, let them (and their attorney) decide how much of their story to tell and how loudly it should be shared.
Helping ITPs Succeed: Insights from Leading Support Programs
In 2024, Virginia joined several other states to stem the U.S. doctor shortage by passing alternative re-licensure laws for certain Internationally Trained Physicians (ITPs). Although these efforts are a strong start, Virginia should also consider adopting elements of other states’ support programs to better leverage the ITP talent pool.
De-skilling and the Mental Health Effects Among Refugee Physicians
Discussions of physician workforce policy tend to organize themselves around numbers. Shortage projections, residency slot allocations, and licensing timelines dominate the literature, and for understandable reasons. More than 83 million people in the United States currently live in areas without sufficient access to a primary care physician, and projections suggest the country could face a shortage of as many as 120,000 physicians by 2030.
