On May 31st, members of Veterans for Peace gathered in the Peace Memorial Park in Portland, OR for a demonstration and conversation about the true costs of war. The day was unseasonably warm, and it was our first in-person gathering since the pandemic began.
This year, we focused on veterans who had willfully served yet were deported after their term of service was up. In conjunction with the Leave No One Behind Mural Project, we are making progress to help raise visibility for these vets so they will be repatriated and honored for their service.
The mural project launched in Tijuana, Baja California and will be installed in over thirty locations in the U.S., Mexico, and other countries. We in Portland are proud to be one of those locations. The project’s coaltion partners staged a grand mural installation in Washington, D.C., coinciding with the end of President Biden’s first 100 days in office.
The coalition urges elected officials, Congress, and the Biden-Harris administration to take a series of policy steps to protect immigrants by:
➤Passing an Executive Action or a series of actions as outlined by Senator Tammy Duckworth to begin the process of repatriating deported veterans.
➤Implementing the New Way Forward Act into law as reintroduced by Representative Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.
➤Taking concrete steps to end family separation and support family reunification.
For more information, please contact our local organizers
Dan Shea; shea@veteransforpeace.org
Jennifer Martinez-Medina; jennifer@repatriateourpatriots.org
or the project’s website: Leavenoonebehindmuralproject.org