Combat service in the U.S. military is one way to earn a coveted Green Card, which confers permanent residence in the United States after the soldier’s tour of duty ends. However, as Kevin Sullivan reports in the Washington Post, Green Cards earnd in combat can be revoked even for minor crimes:

As a deported veteran, Tepeyac is one of a little-known cadre of warriors who served in the U.S. military as green-card holders — permanent legal residents but not U.S. citizens — then committed a crime after returning to civilian life, were convicted and punished, then were permanently expelled from the United States.

No one knows how many there are. U.S. officials said they do not keep track, but immigration lawyers and Banished Veterans, a group formed to help the deportees, said that at least hundreds, and perhaps thousands, have been deported in recent years.

Advocates for deported veterans say that they should be treated like American citizens, rather than banished.