A social media post shared on Veterans Day showed U.S. military veterans who were deported from the United States observing the holiday in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Bob Golen, who shared the footage on X, did not identify the veterans or say when it was recorded. Bob Golen on X
Ciudad Juárez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been home to a support center for deported veterans since 2017. Its founder, a deported veteran named Lopez, told Military Times that for years he thought he was the only deported veteran in Mexico. Then he met Hector Barajas, an Army veteran who had started a similar center in Tijuana in 2013. That encounter inspired Lopez to open a support house in Juárez.
The center helps veterans find housing and food and advises them on how to apply for veterans benefits. Lopez, who regained legal residency in the United States, splits his time between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. By September 2025, he had helped about 20 people through the center, Military Times reported.
For some deported veterans, the border separates them from family members as well. Alfonso Rivas, a U.S. Air Force veteran deported in 2001, spent more than two decades in Ciudad Juárez while his family was in El Paso, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Tags: Veterans Day, Deported Veterans, Ciudad Juárez, U.S. Military, Immigration
Sources: Bob Golen on X, Military Times, Houston Chronicle
By NJ RADAR Team