#1 Army Vet to be deported, because of "Peacetime" se
Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2011 3:38 pm
New York Daily
I would say this is bullshit, but it's not a strong enough word. This is like Black Water Bullshit times a hundred or something ridiculous like that. And Kosovo wasn't a warzone... Okay, it wasn't Iraq or Afghan but it was still a combat zone and the troops got danger pay. And Fuck the Civies who want to make these calls anyways. Seriously you shouldn't be allowed to declare something not a combat zone or a combat zone unless you've damn well carried a fucking rifle. Someone is gonna hear about this.The country he served is kicking him out.
A Queens Army vet who was honorably discharged a decade ago is facing deportation to Trinidad.
The military accepted Ramdeo Chankarsingh in 1991 because he expected to get a green card under a special program. It didn't happen, and officials have denied him citizenship.
"I'm proud to be an American soldier," said Chankarsingh, 44, a father of two from South Ozone Park.
"But I don't feel good about what they're doing to me and my family. ... I feel like they used me."
The former medic, who works as a nurse, will try to persuade an immigration judge this month to let him stay.
Chankarsingh, who came to the U.S. illegally as a teen and worked in Florida orange fields, got a temporary green card through an amnesty program.
After boot camp, he did a stint as a field medic in Kosovo's Camp Bondsteel.
When his temporary green card expired in 1999, Chankarsingh went to a military judge, who told him to file for citizenship.
But when he was called for an interview a year later, the feds said because he served during peacetime he needed a valid green card.
He's been in legal limbo ever since and spent tens of thousands of dollars suing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
His latest application was passed to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which began deportation proceedings.
USCIS declined to comment.
Edward Daniels, a veterans advocate, thinks Chankarsingh should get the same rights as anyone who served in war.
"He should never have been denied," he said