New College Grad to Help Deported Vets
It is graduation season and here is another wonderful story of a new graduate.
Just south of the California border in Tijuana, a small building is a makeshift home to a small community of men, Mexican citizens who called the United States home but were deported even after serving time in the U.S. military.
It’s formally called the Deported Veterans Support House, but most simply call it the Bunker. Its residents lived legally in the U.S. until they ran afoul of the law and were sent back across the border, their service notwithstanding.
And it’s a place where Alfredo Figueroa, who graduates this week from UC Berkeley and himself is an Army veteran, sees that he can make a difference. He has visited the Bunker twice, and saw himself in the men who live there. Now, as the recipient of the Judith Lee Stronach Prize, he plans to use his $25,000 award to support veterans in exile.
The son of immigrants of El Salvador, Figueroa, a former gang member from the Mission District in San Francisco, turned his life around and now will graduate from a great university.
KJ