Three veterans of the U.S. military were pardoned by California Governor Jerry Brown on Saturday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Following their honorable discharges from the military, former Marines Erasmo Apodaca Mendizabal and Marco Antonio Chavez, and former soldier Hector Barajas Varela, were convicted of crimes and deported.
Nathan Fletcher, a former assemblyman and Marine Corps veteran who worked on their cases, said the pardons will make it easier for the veterans to have their green cards restored and apply for U.S. citizenship. "The injustice we are solving is not the actual crime or conviction, the injustice is what the federal government did to them," he said.
Apodaca Mendizabal, who served in Operation Desert Storm, was convicted and sentenced in 1996 for stealing $500 worth of items from his ex-girlfriend.
Chavez immigrated to the U.S. with his parents when he was 1 year old and served four years in the Marine Corps. He was convicted in 1998 for cruelty to animals.
Barajas served in the Army's 82nd Airborne during Operation Desert Storm. He was sentenced in 2002 to being in a vehicle when a gun was fired. He went on to found the Deported Veterans Support House in Tijuana, which assisted deported veterans in adjusting to their new lives, according to his pardon.
Fletcher was with Barajas in Tijuana when he learned the governor had completed the pardon process. "We awkwardly hung out for a few hours as I stared at my phone, waiting for the text message," Fletcher said. "He was stunned, he started crying, he was overwhelmed. He couldn't believe it. He's had just years and years of bad news, yet every day he gets out there and tries to help."
With the pardons dismissing the reasons for the revocation of the three veteran's green cards gone, their lawyers said they will argue the green cards should be reinstated, the paper reported. Immigrants who serve in the U.S. military are eligible for citizenship.
Mackenzie Wolf is an editorial intern for Military Times.
