ICE Still Trying to Deport Parents of Houston Soldier Killed in Iraq in 2004

Pfc. Armando Soriano




"Din and Venom" Over Immigration Reform Overshadows Individual Cases


Armando Soriano grew up in Houston. He died in Iraq on February 1, 2004. Since then ICE has continued to process deportation proceedings against his parents, even though the U.S. government allowed Soriano's family to apply for residency after he was killed.

What kind of inconsistency creates this type of problem? The stories of Soriano and Jimenez should be broadcast everywhere. Everyone needs to know what ICE is doing - Perhaps this will mobilize us as a people to stop this brutality.

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From the Military Times:

February 1, 2004. Army Pfc. Armando Soriano, 20, of Houston; assigned to the howitzer battery, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.; attached to the 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; killed while traveling in a two-vehicle convoy on a supply route Feb. 1 when weather conditions caused his vehicle to slide off the road and roll over in Haditha, Iraq.

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Respecting Our Troops
The cases of Spec. Jimenez and Pfc. Soriano
Washington Post Editorial
Sunday, August 26, 2007; Page B06


AMID THE din and venom of the debate over illegal immigration, the cases of Spec. Alex R. Jimenez of Lawrence, Mass., and Pfc. Armando Soriano of Houston deserve notice. Spec. Jimenez, of the 10th Mountain Division, disappeared in May when his Army convoy was attacked south of Baghdad. Pfc. Soriano, of the Army's 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, died three years ago when his vehicle rolled off the road in Iraq. The two men are missed and mourned by friends and family, in both cases including illegal immigrants who have faced the threat of deportation...

Pfc. Soriano, who was born in the United States, his father, a Mexican national who entered the country illegally, continues to face deportation proceedings despite the government's decision to allow Pfc. Soriano's relatives to apply for green cards following his death

Their cases are unusual but hardly unique. An estimated 68,000 active-duty military personnel were born in foreign countries, and 8,000 others enlist every year, a third of them Mexican or Central American. Nearly half of them are not citizens of the United States. Although undocumented immigrants are not legally eligible for service in the U.S. armed forces, there are numerous instances of some who used phony green cards to enlist. No one knows how many soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have relatives who lack papers, but given that 12 million such people are in the country, it is probably not insubstantial. In some parts of immigrant-rich communities like Los Angeles, large percentages of those who enlist in the military are foreign-born residents of the United States...





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this blog entry from Migra Matters

http://migramatters.blogspot.com/2007/06/good-immigrantsbad-immigrants.html




Spec. Alex Jimenez and wife Yaderlin Hiraldo

...The fate of the two other missing servicemen – Alex R. Jimenez, a 25-year-old specialist from Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Byron R. Fouty, of Waterford, Michigan, a 19-year-old private who had been in Iraq only a few weeks, - is still unknown.(1)

It's against this backdrop that we now learn that Jimenez's wife, Yaderlin, whom he married in 2004, is facing deportation.

Yaderlin Hiraldo, is a native of the Dominican Republican who first met her husband during his childhood visits to the island, but according to her attorney, Matthew Kolken, the 22 year old had entered the U.S. illegally prior to marrying him. It was when he requested a green card and legal residence status for her, that authorities were first alerted to her situation.

Despite Spec. Jimenez's status as a US citizen and active duty serviceman, the fact the Yaderlin had entered illegally meant that she would now have to return home and wait ten years before reapplying.

"I can't imagine a bigger injustice than that, to be deporting someone's wife who is fighting and possibly dying for our country," said Kolken in an interview with a local TV.

An immigration judge has put a temporary stop to the proceedings since Spec. Jimenez was reported missing. The soldier's wife is now living with family members in Pennsylvania...

Photo of Jimenez from Migra Matters

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For complete Washington Post article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082501039.html?st=immigration&fn=&sfn=&sa=np&cp=2&hl=false&sb=-1&sd=&ed=&blt=

Photo of Soriano: http://soldiersangels.homestead.com/files/c5co-soldier_d.jpg&imgrefurl=http://soldiersangels.homestead.com/files/2004_02_01_archive.html&h=207&w=140&sz=7&hl=en&start=1&sig2=FT16_uDMMPKmFhf5jP8Ncw&um=1&tbnid=pRt9DzbAvixT-M:&tbnh=105&tbnw=71&ei=-7zSRp2XB4TAgQPvsNyTCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Darmando%2Bsoriano%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN