RUSK, Texas — An East Texas pastor, who fought for America as a Marine in Iraq, is pounding the pavement to Austin to help veterans like himself.
Julio Torres was detained at the Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, 150 miles away from home in Rusk, for nearly a week before getting released on July 3. He was at risk of being deported to Mexico after visiting family in June.
He doesn't want another veteran to be detained or deported. Torres began his journey early Monday morning in his hometown at the Veterans Memorial in Rusk. He's passing out fliers and trying to stop the deportation of military veterans.
An American Civil Liberties Union report, "Discharged, Then Discarded," found that countless deported veterans were in the U.S. legally and sustained physical wounds and emotional trauma during their service. But once they returned, they were subject to immigration laws for deportable crimes. This is happened what to Torres.
He believes this is a veteran issue, not an immigration issue.
"What greater proof of a person wanting to be in this country than to serve this country? We have so many veterans. One out of four veterans who gets in trouble with the law is from drug and alcohol addiction," Torres said. "So that is a big number. We understand that. PTSD is something very big in the veterans coming back from war, suicide, drug addiction. What separates a person who is a green card holder and from a person who was born here and serves this nation."
Torres is taking his message all the way to the state Capitol, but not before making stops in Houston and College Station. He's very thankful for the East Texas community who supported him and helped facilitate his release from the detention center in Alvarado.