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'These men and women return only when they die'
At the moment there is only one sure-fire way deported veterans can return to the US legally — in a coffin. Stuck in "The Bunker", they're hoping Donald Trump will give them a second chance.
It's early morning on a suburban street in Tijuana as an American flag flaps in an open doorway.
Alejandro Gomez is meticulously cleaning the window next to it.
Inside, Hector Barajas is polishing his black lace-up boots.
These military men run a tight ship. This is after all, "The Bunker".
"It is like in war time where you're safe from the bombs or the enemy," Hector says.
"You are kind of safe here."
Officially it's called the Deported Veterans Support House. Hector has been running The Bunker in this town on the US-Mexico border for seven years.
He and Alejandro served in the US military as non-citizens.
After they were discharged they got in trouble with the law, did jail time, had their visas revoked and were deported to Mexico.
It's a surprisingly common story.
"We have a database of 300 men and women but we really think it has got to be a couple of thousand people who have been deported," he says.
Most deported veterans lived in the US since they were children. Some were brought in illegally by their parents and lied to their recruiting agents about their immigration status.
Others had visas that eventually expired or were revoked for criminal activity.
Before winning office, US President Donald Trump said he was open to the idea of allowing deported veterans to return. But so far he has done nothing.
It's a unique nexus for the President — he has repeatedly professed his desire to look after US military veterans, but despises so-called "bad hombres" — illegal immigrants with criminal records.
"If you don't want to reform the whole immigration thing fine — I understand that," Alejandro, who was deported in 2010, says.
"But at least your vets," he says, "you really need to give vets a second chance".
The White House did not respond to ABC News' request for comment.
At the moment there is only one sure-fire way deported veterans can return to the US legally — in a coffin.
"If I get hit by a bus then I can be taken back to the United States and an American flag will be given to my family and they will say, 'Thank you for your service from this grateful nation'," Hector says.
"We talk about honouring our veterans — there is no honour in letting these men and women return only when they die."
A group of Democrat Congress members are trying to get support for legislation that would allow deported veterans to return to the US.
That could take years to pass, whereas Mr Trump could take immediate action.
"I would like him to do an executive order and bring some of these men and women home," Hector says.
"We are still American veterans and we are willing to die and fight for this country."
Hector Barajas
From 1995, Mexican-born Hector served in the US Army 82nd airborne unit known as the "All Americans".
"I was a paratrooper, so I did a lot of airborne operations, jumping out of planes, putting my life on the line," he says.
After five years and 10 months he received an honourable discharge.
"When I got out of the military I was not a US citizen and I got in trouble. I basically went to prison, I got a three-year term, did half time for a discharge of a firearm into a vehicle."
His visa was revoked and in 2004 he was deported to Mexico, a country he hadn't lived in since he was seven. He snuck back into the US and in 2010 he was kicked out for life, leaving behind his daughter who is now 11.
"We communicate via Skype but it is very difficult — her mother suffers from multiple sclerosis so she is doing everything mum and dad should be doing," he says.
Hector has cause for cautious optimism — after intense lobbying, California's Governor issued him a pardon last year, opening the door for him to apply for US citizenship.
"It feels good but I'm very anxious," he says
"It feels good there is an opportunity [because] some of us may never go home in our lifetime," he says. "So I'm hopeful."
Alejandro Gomez
Alejandro has one dream — to be able to return to the US to hold his eight-month-old granddaughter, Charlotte, for the first time.
"Everyone has held her but me," he says tearfully.
The US Navy veteran was deported to Mexico seven years ago, leaving his wife and four children in America.
In Mexico he's struggled to fit in — his parents took him to the US when he was six months old and until he was deported he knew nothing of his birth country.
"I open my mouth and within about 30 seconds everyone knows I'm not from here," he says.
He traces the beginning of his downfall back to when he was an 18-year-old soldier stationed in Okinawa, Japan.
His fiancee was killed in a drive-by shooting back home in California and he wasn't allowed to go back for the funeral.
"Unfortunately she was taken from me in a very brutal way and I had no way to put closure on it," he says.
"I accepted that — I was a man in uniform — however because of my age I just didn't handle it right."
After a life of drug abuse and addiction he was eventually caught selling $20 worth of cocaine and was deported.
"I'm not going to justify it, I'm guilty," he says.
He spent time in prison for his crime, and says he was at home when immigration agents came to his house with shotguns to take him away.
"There was no need for that," he says. "I'm not Pablo Escobar.
"I had already done my crime, I had paid for it, now I gotta pay for it for the rest of my life?"
Emiliano Arce
As a deported veteran in Tijuana, Emiliano Arce lives in one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico but jokes that it's his addiction to Coca Cola that will kill him.
He's been sober for 12 years after a life of addiction and crime that saw him kicked out of the only country he had ever really known.
He served four years in the Marine Corps where he developed a serious drinking problem. That led to drug use, jail time and eventually deportation.
Home for Emiliano is now Tijuana, where he scrapes together a living driving an ice cream truck.
"Not all things in life are fair," he says.
Emiliano was prepared to die serving under the US flag and wishes he could just go back to visit his parents and siblings.
A few years ago, he tried to cross the border illegally to see them. He was caught and jailed for 14 months in the US before being deported again for life.
"I was locked up for trying to go back to my family, which is I guess something I should have known," he says.
"It is like damned if I do and damned if I don't."
Daniel Torres
The success story of the deported veterans community is 31-year-old Daniel Torres.
He moved to the US from Mexico when he was 15 when his father got a job as an electronic engineer in Utah.
At 18, his US visa expired but he stayed on illegally. At 21 he joined the Marine Corps.
"I said I was an American citizen when I wasn't," Daniel says.
He served in the army for four years, including a tour of Iraq, and had just signed up for a year-long deployment in Afghanistan when his chain of command discovered he was an undocumented immigrant.
They could have charged him with fraud but instead they let him leave the military when his contract expired.
"I couldn't get employment, I couldn't go to school, I couldn't get a loan, I couldn't do anything," he says.
"I was heartbroken, I was broke, I didn't have much options. So I left , I self-deported."
He left America voluntarily and moved back to Mexico where he went to law school, started working at the Deported Veterans Support House and applied for US citizenship.
It took five years, but last April he got it.
"My case was simple enough because I had no criminal record, I have no deportation record and they gave my citizenship," he says.
He says being accepted back into the US felt "weird".
"I had kind of given up on the United States," he says.
"Then after a while I started realising we can make a difference — the biggest barrier was people didn't know about it.
"Unless you were directly affected or a family member affected, no-one knew military members were being deported.
"So once we started breaking down that ignorance barrier we started seeing results, we started getting places," he says.
He plans to move back to Utah to study law in the US to become a binational attorney.
But his victory is far from complete.
"I'm not celebrating until everyone gets to go home," he says.
Topics: veterans, immigration, community-and-society, donald-trump, world-politics, government-and-politics, mexico, united-states
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