By Vanessa Cárdenas, America’s Voice 

Washington, DC — A U.S. citizen and Marine veteran ripped out of his car by ICE. A father of three Marines violently assaulted and detained. Militarized raids in communities across the country. And now, veterans and active-duty National Guards troops are questioning the military’s growing role in domestic immigration enforcement, citing the harm such deployments have on Constitutional guardrails between civilian/military relations as well as the impact on military morale and recruitment. These recent stories highlight that veterans and military families are not being spared from the Trump/Miller mass deportation crusade at any cost.

According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice,

“This administration, in its singular focus to purge our nation of immigrants, is going even after those who serve and protect our nation. Not content with targeting long established and hard-working immigrants, they are arresting and kidnapping even those who have served our nation. We have said it all along— no one is safe from the mass deportation dragnet.”

Below are several recent stories that underscore the above points:

• U.S. citizen and Army veteran detained for three days after CA immigration raid. As Reuters highlights, George Retes said “U.S. officials arrested him during an immigration raid last week and held him for three days without explanation … he was manhandled by federal agents who broke his car window, damaged his vehicle and sprayed him with tear gas during the raid last Thursday … ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re an immigrant, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin. … No one deserves to be treated this way,’ Retes said. ‘I hope this never happens to anyone ever again.’”
• National Guard troops questioning their deployment to Los Angeles and newfound role in immigration. A New York Times article, “Trump’s National Guard Troops Are Questioning Their Mission in L.A.,” notes, “The level of public and private scorn appears to have taken a toll on the National Guard deployment to Los Angeles that President Trump announced last month, citing protests over immigration raids. Interviews with nearly two dozen people — including soldiers and officers as well as officials and civilians who have worked closely with the troops — show that many members of the Guard are questioning the mission. The deployment’s initial orders to quell scattered protests have given way to legally disputed assignments backing up federal immigration agents … Six members of the Guard — including infantrymen, officers and two officials in leadership roles — spoke of low morale and deep concern that the deployment may hurt recruitment for the state-based military force for years to come.”
• Military.com story: “Father of 3 Marines Who Was Beaten by ICE Agents Released, Leaving Family to Process His Detention,” notes, “A father of three Marines who was beaten and detained by immigration agents while landscaping outside of an IHOP in California last month was released from federal custody Tuesday after having spent more than three weeks in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center … The son, 25-year-old Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, told Military.com after the arrest that he initially “couldn’t believe” the video depicting his father being repeatedly punched in the head by federal agents as they pinned him to the ground … After his release, [the father] Narciso told his son that he went without water for 14 hours and that plumbing in the facility’s restrooms caused toilets to flood over. His father also spoke with others in the detention center, ‘innocent people in there who are going through the same things he did,’ Alejandro said. ‘It’s not fair, because they don’t deserve that.’”

• Administration trying to normalize domestic military deployments focused on immigration and border issues: In a KJZZ (Arizona NPR) story, “A swath of Arizona-Mexico border will become a designated military zone. Here’s what that means,” law professor and retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army JAG Corps Dan Maurer said, “Whether it’s the desert along the border, or whether it’s the city streets in LA, or at a detention center in Florida, the administration is conditioning the public to see this as a normal thing,” [referring to domestic military deployments in immigration/border matters] … By putting these installations along the border — where we didn’t have installations before — they’ve militarized the border to such an extent that that is now like Fort Hood, Texas, or Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”