There are a couple of things you need to know about Ramon Castro. The Brawley, California city councilman has true military grit in his blood. And secondly, he’s a people person determined to fight for what he feels is the unjust treatment of our deported veterans.
To punctuate his point, Castro is in the midst of walking the entire route along our southern border frontier with Mexico, a total of 1, 954 miles. The trek began on June 21st at Friendship Park in San Ysidro, with a goal of finishing near Brownsville on August 11th, Castro’s 43rd birthday. Along the way, he has crossed the border on several occasions to meet with groups of veterans who were “green card” holders or otherwise legal residents. They proudly served our country in various branches of the military but on their return, suffered from combat fatigue, PTSD or other forms of mental illness.
This isn’t a rare issue, and happens to a lot to our American troops. They come home in need of specialized treatment from the VA Hospital, and meanwhile get into trouble with vices like drugs and alcohol, plus spontaneous domestic violence. Castro can speak from experience. He served two tours of duty in the Marines, and his last assignment included a deployment to Kuwait during the Iraq war.
“I had a hard time coping when I got back, so I used to drink at lot and got into some bar fights,” recalls Ramon, who spent some time in Mexico as a kid but was born in the United States. “Being an American citizen protected me. Otherwise, I could have ended up just like these guys.”
Castro’s first visit during this journey was in Mexicali with the family of a deceased friend, Erasmo Apodaca, who was arrested on a sketchy assault charge and promptly expelled from the country. Apodaca had fought for 22 years to get reinstated as a U.S. resident, and just last May received a letter stating that clearance had been received to begin the process. Sadly, Apodaca died from an apparent heart attack three days later.
“Erasmo had severe PCSD and was unable to get treatment he needed in Mexico,” revealed Castro. “He is one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this walk.”
Another Castro friend, Hector Barajas, was a bit luckier than Apodaca. Like many, Barajas briefly joined the walk as a symbolic gesture.
“I was deported for 14 years, but was able to return and became a citizen in 2018,” he revealed. “We all support what Ramon is doing to get awareness out there.”
It should be noted that a while before his grueling endeavor, Castro founded a non-profit called “American Veterans Homefront Initiative.” The three-pronged goals of the organization, according to the website, is to halt the deportation of veterans who served in the armed forces, begin a process where legal residents in the military can get on a fast track to citizenship, and full pardons for veterans who have already been deported. Castro’s campaign has received a somewhat favorable reaction from the Biden administration.
“We are committed to bringing back service members, veterans and their immediate family who were unjustly removed, ensuring that they receive the benefits to which they may be entitled,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas recently announced.
Unfortunately, talk is cheap and representatives of presidents from Clinton, to Bush, Obama and Trump have echoed similar promises. Castro is just thankful that his “Walk The Line” trek has struck a nerve in D.C. For sure, it has captured the bipartisan support of nearly every senator and member of congress in the region. As of this post, the Brawley trailblazer has passed through El Paso and is somewhere near Del Rio, Texas, and on pace to hit Brownsville on the scheduled target date of August 11th. Walking for 45 days straight is no easy task. Let’s hope that lawmakers will now carry the ball and make this small piece of immigration reform a reality. That might be the best birthday present Castro has ever received.
