DEPORTED VETERANS
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSEPH SILVA
FEBRUARY 24–JULY 24, 2022
Foreign-born soldiers have served the United States since the Revolutionary War. The French Marquis de Lafayette, the German Friedrich von Steuben, and the West Indian Alexander Hamilton are just three examples of foreign-born soldiers who fought in George Washington’s Continental Army.
Today, the country has approximately 700,000 foreign-born veterans, 45,000 active members, and each year, 5,000 new immigrants join the military. As of 2018, 17 percent of those foreign-born veterans have not been naturalized.
These soldiers’ dedication to their country matches or surpasses the commitment of the native-born. Their honorable service, however, has been rewarded with dishonorable actions—denial of citizenship, unceremonious deportation, and hardships faced by the veterans and their families.
Since the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996, the United States has deported thousands of non-citizen military veterans. These veterans are generally childhood arrivals to the United States with legal permanent resident status, who have a criminal record.
This exhibition seeks to create a visual space in which some of these deported veterans not only recover their denied citizenship but also expose the damage inflicted on them by unjust government policies. From Mexico to the Dominican Republic to England to Costa Rica, veterans proudly display the objects that confirm their American citizenship. They want to remind us that their struggle to gain citizen status is a struggle for social justice.
Today, the country has approximately 700,000 foreign-born veterans, 45,000 active members, and each year, 5,000 new immigrants join the military. As of 2018, 17 percent of those foreign-born veterans have not been naturalized.
These soldiers’ dedication to their country matches or surpasses the commitment of the native-born. Their honorable service, however, has been rewarded with dishonorable actions—denial of citizenship, unceremonious deportation, and hardships faced by the veterans and their families.
Since the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996, the United States has deported thousands of non-citizen military veterans. These veterans are generally childhood arrivals to the United States with legal permanent resident status, who have a criminal record.
This exhibition seeks to create a visual space in which some of these deported veterans not only recover their denied citizenship but also expose the damage inflicted on them by unjust government policies. From Mexico to the Dominican Republic to England to Costa Rica, veterans proudly display the objects that confirm their American citizenship. They want to remind us that their struggle to gain citizen status is a struggle for social justice.
PHOTOGRAPHS
A deported US Army paratrooper with his Corcoran jump boots.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2016.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2016.
Alex, US Marine Corps veteran, from Oakland, California.
Playa de Tijuana, Mexico, 2017. |
Manny, US Navy veteran, raised in Washington Heights, New York City.
Dominican Republic, June 2018. |
US Marine Corps veteran.
Juarez, Mexico, 2017. |
Repatriated US Army veteran Hector with his deported bride, Yolonda Palacios of Madres Deportadas, looking into the United States on their wedding day.
Playa de Tijuana, Mexico, October 2020. |
A deported veteran and his child at a rest stop in Pedro Brand, a municipality of Santo Domingo, following a long journey into the mountains for a deported veterans’ cookout.
Dominican Republic, August 2019. |
Cesar, US Air Force veteran.
Juarez, Mexico, 2017. |
Deported US Navy sailor.
Juarez, Mexico, July 2019. |
Mauricio, deported US Army Afghanistan War combat veteran, with his daughter at the “Bunker,” the Deported Veteran Support House.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2016.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2016.
Concertina wire protecting a home.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, June 2018. |
Edwin, US Army Iraq War combat veteran from Lincoln Heights, New York.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2019. |
Panchito, a deported veteran raised in El Paso, Texas, drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War, displays his boot camp and “in country” portraits.
Juarez, Mexico, 2019.
Juarez, Mexico, 2019.
Hilarion, US Army combat veteran from Trinidad and Tobago in a meeting room at New York University.
New York, New York, August 2019. |
"I know Mike," as he is known throughout Juarez, Mexico, on the Tinder dating app, is a deported US Marine Corps veteran making a living as a happy hour DJ in strip mall bars.
Juarez, Mexico, July 2019. |
Emiliano, a US Marine Corps veteran raised in Los Angeles, California.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2019 |
A deported veteran following his unauthorized return to the United States.
2019. |
A deported veteran who re-entered the United States without authorization.
2019. |
US Marine Corps veteran Enrique Salas’s flag-draped casket outside St. Anthony's Church. Salas, 47, had a truck accident in Tijuana, Mexico, where he was living following his deportation. Hi fellow veterans fought to get a humanitarian visa to take him to San Diego, where he died.
Reedley, California, April 2018.
Reedley, California, April 2018.
Felix, US Army veteran.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2018. |
Edwin, US Marine Corps veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2017. |
Miguel, US Army veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2019. |
Hector, US Army veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2017. |
Andy, US Army veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2016. |
Ivy, US Army veteran.
Juarez, Mexico, 2019. |
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Ricardo, US Army veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2019. |
Carlos, US Marine Corps veteran.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2018. |
Richard, US Marine Corps veteran.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2022. |
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Brawley City Councilman and Marine Corps veteran Ramon Castro, on his 40-day walk along the US–Mexico border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico to show solidarity with deported veterans.
El Paso, Texas, July 2021. |
ACLU staff attorney Sameer Ahmed with US Army veteran Yea Ji Sea as she waits to be sworn in as a US citizen at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Los Angeles, August 2018. |
Laura, US Army Iraq War veteran, raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and deported to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica, 2019. |
Steven Pierre, deported US Navy veteran, and Hector Barajas, repatriated US Army veteran, share a moment on a balcony.
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 2018. |
Juan, a deported US Marine Corps veteran, watching for cars so he can cross the road.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, June 2018. |
Ricardo, US Army veteran, makes a living as an on-call mariachi playing at parties, quinceañeras, weddings, and funerals.
Juarez, Mexico, July 2019. |
The refrigerator “medicine cabinet” of Ramon, US Air Force Vietnam War veteran, with VA Bronx Pharmacy prescriptions. Ramon goes to the VA five days a week for appointments and group therapy.
Bronx, New York, August 2019. |
Ramon, US Air Force Vietnam War veteran, checking his upcoming VA appointments at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. Ramon fears he will be deported.
Bronx, New York, August 2019. |
Joe, from Hollywood, California, and drafted into the US Army during the Vietnam War, on his first day of deportation.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2018.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2018.
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Congressional visit by US Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois on Veterans Day. “I am ashamed of and heartbroken by how our nation is treating the deported veterans I met with today,” said the senator. “They are Americans all but on paper.”
Tijuana, Mexico, 2019. |
Repatriated US Army paratrooper Hector Barajas, flanked by deported US Marine Corps veterans Richard and Emiliano from Mexico and Armando from Panama, during a Congressional visit by veteran and US Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois on Veterans Day.
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Ivy, US Army Iraq War veteran, sounding off in his home office.
Juarez, Mexico, July 2019. |
Rudi rides a double decker bus. He is a deported US Army veteran, born Udo Akermann in a women's prison in Aichach, Germany, to a Jewish mother and an African American father.
London, England, March 2020. |
Brothers Fernando and Jaime, deported US Army veterans, from Stockton, "Fat City," California.
Tijuana, Mexico, 2017. |
Deported US Marine Corps veteran.
Playa de Tijuana, Mexico, 2017. |
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Ms. Santos displays a US Army boot camp portrait of her deported son, Juan.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, July 2018. |
José, with a Dominican passport in hand, was raised in Washington Heights, New York. He joined the US Army with a group of friends after the Marine Barracks Bombing in Beirut, 1983.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2018. |
California Congresswoman Nanette Barragán and deported veteran Hector Barajas speak with ABC 7 news on a Congressional visit to the “Bunker,” the Deported Veteran Support House.
Tijuana, Mexico, June 2017.
Tijuana, Mexico, June 2017.
A message from Jospeh Silva....
My name is Joseph Silva. I am a United States Navy veteran and a Documentary Fine Art photographer.
“You don’t leave your shipmate on the beach, leave no man behind.” - the Soldier's Creed.
As of 2021, I have shot a couple hundred rolls of film and filled multiple hard drives. I personally invested 6 years of my life to raising awareness of the deportation of Veterans from the United States Military. I have traveled to the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and North America documenting deported Veterans. I spent extended time with these Veterans and their families so that I might share their story.
My journey started in the spring of 2016 while photographing Donald Trump protesters in downtown San Diego. I started to hear stories about deported veterans, so I sent a message to Hector Barajas, a US Army veteran deported to Tijuana, Mexico. I told him I wanted to cross the border to hear his story. A couple days later I took a Leica M4, M3, and a checked-out Canon 7D from the Santa Monica College student newspaper. I met Hector at the BUNKER, the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana, Mexico. After arriving at the BUNKER and meeting Hector and fellow Veterans, I felt like I was at a VRC (veteran resource center) on a college campus shooting the shit: telling sea stories, talking about deployments, hitting the beach, Tam’s Burgers, Okinawa, watching action films, true crime documentaries and Breaking Bad marathons on TV. I knew within 20 minutes after being in their presence that I had to tell their stories.
A year later, spring of 2017, I accompanied my new friend Hector to Juarez, Mexico to meet more deported veterans and help open a BUNKER, a Deported Veteran Support House. It has been one meeting after another. In Juarez, I met a deported female Marine through my uber driver. I spent 30 minutes with her and before parting ways, she told me that her little brother was an Air Force Veteran who was deported. We had a conference call and exchanged numbers and then she vanished into the night.
You may not be aware, but there are hundreds of deported veterans who were drafted during the Vietnam War only to be deported. There are even more deported Veterans from the many recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is unbelievable to think this could happen, but it has, and it continues. I believe anyone willing to volunteer for the United States military should automatically become a United States citizen, no discussion.
VIDEOS & PODCAST
EXHIBITION VIDEO
ABC7 SALUTES
EMANCIPATED PODCAST
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Deported Veterans, a discussion on deportation of U.S. noncitizen service members and immigration....
In this episode, Marta Valier discusses deportations of immigrants from the U.S., more specifically about the deportation of veterans, with Héctor Barajas, director and founder of the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana, Mexico, ACLU immigration attorney Andrés Kwon, and photographer Joseph Silva, author of the photographic exhibition Deported Veterans at the Museum of Social Justice. Visit CSUN Tom and Ethel Bradley Center webpage to explore their Border Studies archive, and see some of the digitized images of the Julián Cardona Collection. |
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