A U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan has been deported to Mexico after he was denied U.S. citizenship for a felony drug conviction, CNN reports.
Miguel Perez, Jr., 39, was handed over to Mexican authorities on Friday, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., called the case, “a tragic example of what can happen when national immigration policies are based more in hate than on logic and ICE doesn't feel accountable to anyone.”
Duckworth, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, had pushed for the Department of Homeland Security to prevent the deportation, saying Perez earned the opportunity to remain in the U.S. and receive mental health treatment for substance abuse and PTSD when he vowed to defend the country.
"At the very least, Miguel should have been able to exhaust all of his legal options before being rushed out of the country under a shroud of secrecy,” she said.
"@DHSgov @SecNielsen: you have the power to prevent @USArmy Veteran Miguel Perez from being deported TODAY. I urge you to personally review his case before forcing his deportation through without giving him time to even say goodbye to his loved ones," Duckworth also tweeted Friday.
Perez came to the United States legally in the 1980s with his parents and was a legal permanent resident when he joined the military. His drug addiction started when he returned from war. In 2010, he was convicted on charges of delivering more than two pounds of cocaine to an undercover officer and sentenced to 15 years.
"After the second tour, there was more alcohol and that was also when I tried some drugs," Perez said last month per CNN. "But the addiction really started after I got back to Chicago, when I got back home, because I did not feel very sociable."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.