When the Country You Fought for Fights Against You

“I served in combat. I put my life on the line for this country. You think you are protected, but your citizenship could be revoked just like that. They can just send you packing. I’m trying to look out for myself and my family.” – Emilio*, U.S. Marine veteran

The Trump administration makes an elaborate show of honoring America’s veterans. Consider the disastrous military parade for the Army’s 250th anniversary and lip service about providing homes for unhoused vets. But the administration’s anti-veteran actions speak louder than empty gestures and promises.

These are precarious times for veterans who risked their lives for our country. Between Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, they risk losing their jobs, their health care and their homes.

A Worried Warrior

*Emilio isn’t his real name. The pseudonym is for protection. Other identifying details have also been changed. He’s understandably concerned for himself and his family. 

Emilio is a combat veteran in his 40s who lives with his wife and children on Chicago’s Northwest Side. He enlisted in the U.S. Marines right after high school, began as a machine operator and transferred to infantry. Emilio was deployed to Iraq twice: once during the initial invasion in 2003 and again during the Battle of Fallujah.

Born in Mexico, Emilio moved to Chicago in the early 1990s. He enlisted in the Marines with a green card. Thanks to special provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that make service members eligible to apply for citizenship, Emilio gained U.S. citizenship after his two tours of combat.

He went to college, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees and now works as a health care provider.

Defending the Right to Stay: An Uphill Battle

Nearly 731,000 veterans like Emilio had been born outside the U.S. as of 2022, representing 4.5% of the country’s 16.2 million veterans, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Service in the U.S. military should ease a path to citizenship. But this past April, ICE rescinded a policy that considered military service when deciding immigration enforcement.

“Deportation of vets is not something new,” Emilio points out. “But with the administration’s Midway blitz, ICE is seemingly everywhere, snatching people—children, citizens—from their homes, off the streets, in front of homeless shelters; detaining and deporting them without federal warrants, without consideration of their legal status, without due process.” 

“I used to think my service record, my citizenship would protect us, but now I’m not so sure. These are scary times.”

Jeopardizing Jobs and Healthcare

If unjustified ICE raids weren’t enough, a spate of DOGE firings of federal employees and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cuts have hit veterans particularly hard.

The federal government is the single largest employer of veterans: Vets make up nearly a third of the federal workforce. Exact numbers are tough to track, but an estimated 6,000 veterans were fired from their federal jobs in the first month of the Trump administration.

The VA is America’s largest integrated health care system, with 1,300-plus facilities serving more than 9 million veterans each year. The department also partners to conduct veterans' health studies. Firing VA researchers threatens clinical trials that have already enrolled veterans and research on critical issues facing veterans such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), opioid addiction and cancer from exposure to toxins.

“I’m especially concerned about threats to defund Pit Burn Registry research,” Emilio says. The registry is a tool that enables the VA to collect and analyze health data from service members exposed to airborne hazards and burn pits during their military service. And it provides extra medical assistance for veterans who have conditions such as respiratory, neurological and cardiac issues.

“Among my fellow vets, I’m seeing new illnesses emerging, some 20 years after service,” Emilio explains. “It’s alarming. I lost too many friends to count who shouldn’t have died. This research and these services are critical.”

VA medical services are also under attack. Emilio uses the VA for his annual physical, received care when he broke his arm and occasionally checks in for mental health care. He is one of the luckier ones. Aside from some delays getting an appointment, VA issues haven’t had a direct impact on him yet. But he’s concerned about how cuts and new policies might impact his troop mates.

Our country embraces sending immigrants into battle, but when they return, this administration is cutting their jobs, slashing benefits and kidnapping them from their communities. There’s a lot of flag waving and pomp, but when it comes to immigrants who have served with valor, this administration has been treating them like the enemy. 

Says Emilio: “It’s time this country defends our veterans like we’ve defended this country.”

RESOURCES for VETERANS

(check back for more this month)

• Hire Heroes USA: helps veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses secure meaningful employment.
• American Bar Association's Military Pro Bono Project: legal services for veterans and their families
• Mayor's Office on Veterans Affairs (Chicago): information on resources, recreational activities, federal benefits, veteran hiring preferences, and veteran owned businesses
• Illinois Attorney General's Military and Veterans' Rights Bureau: resources on state and federal benefits, consumer protection, dealing with trauma, and legal assistance
• National Veterans Art Museum (Portage Park): Free museum created by veteran artists and volunteers. The museum also provides paid fellowships to veteran artists who want to build a shared sense of purpose and connectedness between veterans and the public.

GET INVOLVED!

More opportunities to support our local veterans and the workers at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will be posted soon!

Coming soon:

Stay tuned this month for a story from a Northwest Side VA staffer on how her team is trying to help despite brutal federal cuts.