Combat veteran deported....

U.S. Marine combat veteran, long-time Long Beach resident, deported to El Salvador

Lawyer for Jose Segovia Benitez: "They snuck him out in the middle of the night."

By ROXANA KOPETMAN

Jose Segovia Benitez, a U.S. Marine combat veteran who ran afoul of the law after leaving the military, was deported to El Salvador, to the surprise of his lawyers who believed they had more time to fight for his cause.

“They snuck him out in the middle of the night,” said Texas attorney Tom Sanchez, who recently joined efforts to help keep the Long Beach resident from being deported.

Roy Petty, a Dallas-based attorney working to help Segovia, traveled to Arizona Wednesday, Oct. 23, hoping his client would be able to sign some legal documents. Instead, Petty learned that Segovia, 38, was sent to El Salvador — a country he last saw when he was 3 — sometime between late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

“Last night, Jose called his mom and he still had not been told that he was to be deported today,” Petty wrote in an e-mail. “We’ve asked (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) why the surprise deportation.”

Segovia, who served time for felony convictions, including domestic violence, faced deportation earlier this month before winning a last-minute reprieve. And after Segovia was pulled off a plane bound for El Salvador, on Oct. 16, his attorneys believed they had at least five days to make a new argument for keeping their client in the United States. Petty said he was told by ICE officials earlier this week that he had more time to file court documents on Segovia’s behalf.

Meanwhile, a request to pardon Segovia was filed with California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Segovia’s supporters are hoping the governor will still grant him a pardon, as he did last Friday to three other unauthorized immigrants who faced deportation because of past crimes.

Supporters believe Segovia has earned a chance to stay in the country he considers home.

Segovia was brought from El Salvador to the United States at age 3 and grew up in Long Beach. He joined the Marines after graduating from Poly High in 1999 and served two combat tours in Iraq.

Segovia’s backers say he suffered a brain injury from a blast in Iraq. They also say he was never properly treated for that injury or for post-traumatic stress he suffered after returning to the United States. Instead, after receiving an honorable discharge in 2004, Segovia began to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, a pattern that changed his behavior. He had some violent episodes, including domestic-violence charges against a then-girlfriend.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials point out that Segovia’s criminal record included a driving-under-the-influence charge and six felony convictions. But his new attorneys argue that the felonies were overstated, and that he would have been charged with misdemeanors had he been represented by a private attorney instead of a public defender.

Segovia, they said, was not told that pleading guilty to aggravated felonies would result in his deportation.

“If Newsom looks at what actually happened – he was involved in fights with his girlfriend,” Sanchez said. “Those are all misdemeanors, but he was charged with felonies.”

Segovia pleaded guilty in each case until contesting allegations of domestic violence. In that case, the judge did not allow him to submit evidence that he had PTSD, or to mention that he was an ex-Marine.

“If the judge in that trial who caused all of this had allowed him to give evidence, that he had PTSD and was a Marine, he probably would never have been convicted,” Sanchez said.

“The more you understand about this case, the more it begs questions,” Sanchez added. “It was a quicky trial, and he was found guilty the same day. The judge gave him four years. This led to (his) deportation.”

People with legal permanent residency can live and work in the United States as long as they renew their green card every 10 years.  But the government can revoke that status and deport green-card holders on a number of grounds, including aggravated felony convictions.

Segovia had a citizenship application in the works when he was in the military, and had that been completed he would not be facing deportation after serving time for his crimes. Another application for citizenship was submitted last week.

Petty said he will still seek to reopen the deportation case on the basis that Segovia’s life is in danger. In El Salvador, Petty said, an ex-U.S. Marine with a large Statue of Liberty tattooed across his ribs could be targeted for violence.

Meanwhile, Segovia’s supporters continue to seek a pardon from Newsom.  A pardon on the aggravated felony charges, they believe, could pave the way for the Long Beach man’s return.

That’s what happened in the case of Army veteran Miguel Perez Jr. of Chicago. He was deported last year after serving a prison sentence for a felony drug conviction. He mistakenly believed that his time in the military granted him citizenship. Last August, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker granted him clemency.  Back in the U.S., he became a citizen earlier this month.

Perez’s earlier sudden deportation struck similarities to Segovia’s, said Carlos Luna, president of Green Card Veterans, a Chicago chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

“What happened to Jose is what happened with Miguel. They essentially disappeared him…There was no indication he would be deported,” Luna said Wednesday.

Now, Luna and others are hopeful Segovia will be pardoned and retuned — as Perez was.

But in the meantime, his family in Long Beach and supporters across the country were spending Wednesday trying to figure out how to help him once he arrives in El Salvador. He knows no one there.