Deported Army veteran from Chicago awaits citizenship ruling

Miguel Perez Jr. hopes to find out within the next couple of weeks whether he is a citizen of the country he swore to defend.

And now he waits.

Army veteran Miguel Perez Jr. met with immigration officials Wednesday to reapply for citizenship in the country he swore to defend.

“Everything went very well, very positive. It seems like it’s going to be a positive outcome,” Perez said outside the Chicago field office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “Now it’s just wait and see and hope.”

Perez, 39, served two tours in Afghanistan in 2002-03 before being convicted of delivering cocaine in 2008. That crime led to immigration officials revoking Perez’s green card, denying his citizenship application and, later, deporting him to his native Mexico in 2018.

In August, Gov. J.B. Pritzker pardoned Perez. That opened the door for Perez to get a two-week permit to enter the country to attend the hearing Wednesday. Perez will now wait to hear whether he can stay in the only country he’s called home.

Perez legally emigrated to Chicago with his parents in 1989 and grew up on the West Side. He suffered a traumatic brain injury while in Afghanistan and has post-traumatic stress disorder.

Attorney Chris Bergin, who has represented Perez since 2016, said he expects immigration officials to come back with a decision on Perez’s citizenship application before his two-week permit expires.

“They did say there were a lot of eyes watching this, obviously, so we believe that it will be a quick decision,” he said.

Bergin said his client was nervous on the ride to the field office “and only calmed down after eating some Garrett Popcorn.”

“That’s how Chicago this guy is,” Bergin said.

Carlos Ballesteros is a corps members of Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that aims to bolster Sun-Times coverage of Chicago’s South Side and West Side.