Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Software Radio Special Operations, military news and straight
Speaker 1: talk with the guys in the community. Hello and everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome back to the Software Radio. I'm your host this afternoon.
Speaker 1: Steve Alstari. Joining us on the phone right now is
Speaker 1: Ramonte Castro. Ramonte runs the American Veterans Home Front Initiative,
Speaker 1: and if you haven't heard of that, you should. Ramona
Speaker 1: is walking across the entire United States southern border and uh,
Speaker 1: he's doing it to draw attention to veterans who were
Speaker 1: promised citizenship if they served in our armed forces. Who
Speaker 1: guys who came across our borders, and um, then you know,
Speaker 1: we kind of pulled a rug out on several of them.
Speaker 1: And to draw attention to this, Ramona is walking all
Speaker 1: the way across our southern borders. He's done in uh
Speaker 1: well last week. He heard he was in an area
Speaker 1: around California yesterday. But we'll talk with him right now. Ramon,
Speaker 1: Welcome to Software Pratdio. Thanks for joining us, and thanks
Speaker 1: for drawing attention to this. Oh, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's an important, uh topic, and I think
Speaker 1: it's something that's America one of America's dirty little secrets,
Speaker 1: and it's something that we definitely need to shed light on. Um.
Speaker 1: Most importantly, what it does it it pressures are biding
Speaker 1: Harris administration to keep their words. These are promises that
Speaker 1: were made during the campaign trail and they said, this
Speaker 1: is some initiative we're going to deal with with in
Speaker 1: the first hundred days. And we understand, but it hasn't
Speaker 1: been a priority in the past, and we're hoping to
Speaker 1: making a priority now. Yeah, and can you fill our
Speaker 1: listeners in, you know, because this isn't just one or
Speaker 1: two guys, This is quite a few and guys who
Speaker 1: you know did their time in our military. A lot
Speaker 1: of them served in combat overseas and then they're deported.
Speaker 1: That's that's correct, sir, Um. Well, unfortunately, we can't give
Speaker 1: you an exact figure because ICE does not keep track.
Speaker 1: There's no category in order to check off when they're
Speaker 1: being deported that asked if they were they ever served
Speaker 1: in the use United States military. So although they some
Speaker 1: agencies are tracked ninety five, whether attract three hundred within
Speaker 1: a five year window. UH Shelter South of the Border
Speaker 1: are saying they're a thou sin. The veterans have been
Speaker 1: deported h since when uh Bill Clinton. Policies under the
Speaker 1: Bill Clinton administration changed the way we determine how crimes
Speaker 1: are punished in this country. Well, now fill our listeners
Speaker 1: in a little bit about what you're doing. You draw
Speaker 1: attention to this because, um, you're gonna have some sore
Speaker 1: feet by the end of this one, my friend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, actually today and tomorrow we had to pause.
Speaker 1: And this is just my team that said, hey, we're
Speaker 1: gonna ground you. The bruising, the bruising and the blisters,
Speaker 1: and also an infection developed in one of the blisters,
Speaker 1: so we decided to pause and and take care of
Speaker 1: that and get some better shoes. They you know, actually
Speaker 1: went and got some some new balance some h walking
Speaker 1: shoes like an old I call it old man shoes
Speaker 1: because they're actually the most comfortable ones that are going
Speaker 1: to help out with this process. But yeah, we are.
Speaker 1: We are going too thousand miles. We started this past
Speaker 1: past week at Imperil Beach in San Diego. We walked
Speaker 1: over the mountains, we walked through Imperil County. We're not
Speaker 1: in eastern um, eastern California. Not too far about thirty
Speaker 1: miles out from Arizona. I think I'd have to measure
Speaker 1: that out again. So we'll be in Arizona in the
Speaker 1: next couple of days and on through Arizona. We should
Speaker 1: be there, and we're talking in about seven days to
Speaker 1: get through that state and to New Mexico. So week
Speaker 1: and a half or so we'll be in New Mexico
Speaker 1: and and just kind of going forward. I didn't check
Speaker 1: in with Hector Barajas from the Deported Veteran Support House
Speaker 1: and Ijuanna to ask what his take was on this
Speaker 1: and and see if you know, are we wasting our
Speaker 1: time or do we keep going? What do we do?
Speaker 1: And um, he didn't mention that a lot of what
Speaker 1: the conversation, well, first off, we heard a lot of
Speaker 1: keywords in there that said, you know, those veterans that
Speaker 1: meet the qualifications, those veterans that uh that are qualified,
Speaker 1: those veterans that you know, they're so they're they're they're
Speaker 1: picking who they want. Um. And also he mentioned that
Speaker 1: a lot of whatness was like a backlash and they
Speaker 1: were looking to fix what they said were errors doing
Speaker 1: the during the Trump administration. But you know, Mr President,
Speaker 1: under their woman administration, the Obama and Buying administration, they
Speaker 1: departed hundreds of veterans without ever asking twice, you know,
Speaker 1: if they had served or not. UM, So they have
Speaker 1: been aware of this issue. And when we're going to
Speaker 1: continue to refreshman, you know, we want me to fix it.
Speaker 1: We want you to fix it. And now the Department
Speaker 1: of Defense and Department of for I can't even think
Speaker 1: of the actual department right now, the one takes care
Speaker 1: of or I takes care of naturalization. And they're gonna
Speaker 1: get together and start the process of UH turning UH
Speaker 1: actual recruits or people in boot camp, processing their citizenship
Speaker 1: and even staring some of them in during boot camp,
Speaker 1: which would be out be that's a great victory, that's
Speaker 1: that's a win for us, and it's a win for
Speaker 1: all those who want to serve this country who weren't
Speaker 1: born here. Like going forward, we have to fix our mistakes.
Speaker 1: This is we failed as a nation to how a
Speaker 1: policy in place that guarantee citizenship. Because if these folks
Speaker 1: have been citizenships, they would committed their crime and they
Speaker 1: would still be here. They would have done their time
Speaker 1: and they would have had their opportunity to meant their
Speaker 1: comeback that is not the case. So at this point
Speaker 1: we're we're we're we're hoping, and we're pushing real hard
Speaker 1: that the language that is put forth isn't just to
Speaker 1: you know, try to you know, doing somewhere this political fighting,
Speaker 1: but that they actually fixed the issue. And go back
Speaker 1: twenty five years when this beginning under the Clinton administration, Uh,
Speaker 1: continue through the Bush administration, continue to the Obama Biden administration,
Speaker 1: continue through the Trump administration, and we're hoping it ends
Speaker 1: here with biding the Biden Harris administration. That's amazing. Yet,
Speaker 1: I mean didn't seemed like that long ago and we're
Speaker 1: in four different administrations now, so, um, that's correct. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So how did you get involved with this personally? I mean,
Speaker 1: was it someone you knew? Is what got you involved in?
Speaker 1: Or is it just something that you heard about and
Speaker 1: it struck a nerve with you? Yes, sir, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's a friend had passed away. Uh, we're looking
Speaker 1: about a month ago I passed away. I believe this
Speaker 1: twenty second uh second of May. We had to present
Speaker 1: a flag. We did a flag ceremony presentation in Mexican soil. Uh.
Speaker 1: We folded the flag and presented to his young daughter, UM,
Speaker 1: and and it was I was I was ashamed. It
Speaker 1: was ashamed discussion that we were presenting an American flight
Speaker 1: to a United States Marine Corps war veteran on foreign soil,
Speaker 1: which was just sad. So a year and a half ago,
Speaker 1: through a podcast that we were working on, we ran
Speaker 1: into the spokes and ended up going to I want
Speaker 1: to Mexico UM to interview his folks, and we saw
Speaker 1: that there was an issue there. We promised to come
Speaker 1: back and because of COVID, we didn't come back for
Speaker 1: a while and we just we just received some funding,
Speaker 1: so we went down there to help him out, ran
Speaker 1: into these folks again and then saw that um, nothing
Speaker 1: had been done, and of course we started to work
Speaker 1: on that. Also with death comes along and we had
Speaker 1: we knew that the President had made some promises and
Speaker 1: and you know, we said, you know what, we had
Speaker 1: to do something about this now because a lot of
Speaker 1: these folks are down there, UH have a deserved to
Speaker 1: have access to the v A helper system. They're not
Speaker 1: receiving him. Mr at Osmore died from a heart apparent
Speaker 1: heart attack, and and we'll never know if he would
Speaker 1: have still been here or not. Had he had access
Speaker 1: to his VA health care. M hm. So, UM, I
Speaker 1: have to ask you have have you been joined? I
Speaker 1: know you haven't get into the teeth of it everything
Speaker 1: yet with your walk, but you've already almost across California.
Speaker 1: Have you been joined it all by any of your
Speaker 1: former you know, uh Marine corpsvettes, any of the families
Speaker 1: involved in this. Yes, Yes, many of the families have joined. Uh.
Speaker 1: Actually Mr Appolata's family joined us yesterday on Sunday morning.
Speaker 1: UM and and UM walk with us about twelve miles.
Speaker 1: They wanted to keep going, and I was like, no,
Speaker 1: we're gonna stop because I don't think they realized why
Speaker 1: your body is hot. You can you can't keep going.
Speaker 1: You can keep going, but you know, it just it's
Speaker 1: in turns. So some folks that joined us, they joined
Speaker 1: us when they get go to San Diego. Uh. They
Speaker 1: nobody joined me across the mountain, which is good. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have allowed it either way because it was pretty risky. Uh.
Speaker 1: And some join some folks join us as we made
Speaker 1: our final stretch through San Diego County into Imperol County
Speaker 1: and down to Calexico. Some childhood friends and other other um,
Speaker 1: you know, former Marines or whatnot. Uh, And we had
Speaker 1: quite a crowd down downtown Calexico. So folks are coming along,
Speaker 1: they're joining. Not only are the joining, but helping to
Speaker 1: raise funds with his cause. And they understand that our
Speaker 1: non profit is not just uh set up to help
Speaker 1: with this specific matter, but with what many matters across
Speaker 1: the board. Absolutely, and uh yeah, we we happen to
Speaker 1: see uh your press conference there, I think was it Friday.
Speaker 1: You had the press conference and you had a good
Speaker 1: sized turnout there and a couple of elected officials, which
Speaker 1: is good because that's what brings attention to it. Now,
Speaker 1: you know, we just need to get the national people
Speaker 1: involved with this, in the you know, officers of the
Speaker 1: president and the vice president, and maybe we'll see this
Speaker 1: to fruition. So, UM, I know that you had said that,
Speaker 1: you know, you're you're on your way, but we did
Speaker 1: see in the newspaper that the admit straation, you know,
Speaker 1: as and you mentioned this earlier. They released the statement.
Speaker 1: It was kind of ambiguous. There was a little you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't say too much, but they did say that
Speaker 1: they were, you know, gonna look at this issue. Do
Speaker 1: you have high hopes to that that's correct, that's correctly
Speaker 1: did say they're gonna look at this issue again. I
Speaker 1: read all the statements that were put out. UM, many
Speaker 1: of them were saying, you know, for those letters that
Speaker 1: qualify and their families, and were those veterans that that
Speaker 1: meet the criteria, those that are currently serving and meet
Speaker 1: the criteria will become citizens, and those who qualify. We
Speaker 1: brought back those who are unjustly processed. What they're referring
Speaker 1: to when they say the unjustly process are referring to
Speaker 1: veterans that are processed under the Trump administration. So what
Speaker 1: we're asking is that they fix at all that these
Speaker 1: fixes disservice to our veterans going back years, not just
Speaker 1: under the Trump administration, because Trump is not the only
Speaker 1: president to have done this. As we mentioned before, it's
Speaker 1: been It started with Bill Clinton, uh, continued with Bush,
Speaker 1: followed Obama, and I keep mentioning it to make a
Speaker 1: uh that this is not this isn't a political no
Speaker 1: longer political party. It's a it's just something that we
Speaker 1: just kind of strepped into the rug and forgot about,
Speaker 1: pretended it wasn't there. So that's that's the biggest problem.
Speaker 1: That we have. I think that even there is no
Speaker 1: political will to get this done, although a President Biden
Speaker 1: said that this is a priority for him. We're just
Speaker 1: now getting something going. Um. But we here's my other concern. UM.
Speaker 1: My other concern is that one Spiding leaves office and
Speaker 1: we don't know how much longer he'll be in office.
Speaker 1: Four years, another four years, Um, that the following administer
Speaker 1: should kind of does what they have been doing. Is okay,
Speaker 1: Well it's my turnout. Man, I'm gonna reverse all these
Speaker 1: policies that I didn't like about my predecessor and that
Speaker 1: this is included in those. So we want full protections,
Speaker 1: we want guarantees. Um. And we don't know what it's
Speaker 1: gonna take or at the Congress or whatnotever, we're going
Speaker 1: to make sure that that's what happens. That. So our
Speaker 1: work is far from done. We hope that we can
Speaker 1: stop this walk, but it's gonna require a lot more
Speaker 1: than just saying we're opening up uh you know, uh
Speaker 1: that we're gonna start the work no where where, let's
Speaker 1: get this done. And when it's it's so easy to
Speaker 1: get for it to happen. Uh, when we're asking the
Speaker 1: president of who I provide full partners. And over the
Speaker 1: years we have seen well who were the people who
Speaker 1: presidents who our presidents at partner on their way out
Speaker 1: from people who have you know, stolen from our government
Speaker 1: to write this too. You name it and and we're
Speaker 1: just asking that they partner our troops, our veterans who
Speaker 1: serve this country and who were paid a very high price.
Speaker 1: And and I'm sure that you're well aware of mean
Speaker 1: our veterans come home, we come home. We come home
Speaker 1: with mental health issues, with physical issues, we come home with. Uh,
Speaker 1: you just name it up. The stuff that started years after,
Speaker 1: right years after. I just read a story about a
Speaker 1: veteran who died from cancer at seven years old, who
Speaker 1: had been deported for roughly twenties. He's one of the
Speaker 1: first to get deported. They buried him in Chicago. They
Speaker 1: flew him in once he died, because that's when all
Speaker 1: of them are allowed to come home when they're dead. Uh,
Speaker 1: give him burial, a funeral with full honors. And that
Speaker 1: his daughter was very upset, and rightfully so. She said,
Speaker 1: had he had access to his healthcare, he would still
Speaker 1: be here. He died from cancer. Served in the Vietnam War.
Speaker 1: And died from cancers that were directly connected to Agent Orange.
Speaker 1: Now and then you know, with full honors, that's not
Speaker 1: a slap of the phase after your dead. I don't
Speaker 1: know what it is, Yeah, exactly. You know, it's funny
Speaker 1: because um having served in the Army's Green Berets Special Forces,
Speaker 1: the original Special Forces guys, a lot of them came
Speaker 1: to the United States under the old lawge Act, where
Speaker 1: it's you know, they came from Eastern Europe and if
Speaker 1: they served a tour in the United States Army, they
Speaker 1: you know, they were giving they were given citizenship status.
Speaker 1: And a lot of the guys that came before me
Speaker 1: where those logic guys. It's the same exact thing. And
Speaker 1: and it doesn't make any sense why they decided to
Speaker 1: arbitrarily do this. But you know, inform our listeners how
Speaker 1: they can contribute to this cause and how they can
Speaker 1: get in contact with you, and you know, if if
Speaker 1: they're even wanting to, if they live near the border
Speaker 1: and want to walk with you, how they can keep
Speaker 1: in touch with you. Yeah. No, absolutely, we're providing up
Speaker 1: there on Facebook. If you just look up my name
Speaker 1: Ramote Castro. They're like a million of them in California.
Speaker 1: Look up Remote Castro city of Brawley on any of
Speaker 1: the social media platforms. You can also find us on
Speaker 1: www dot America American Veterans home Front Initiative dot com
Speaker 1: and you can also call me directly. My numbers out there.
Speaker 1: So it's seven six nine. Um. My number has been
Speaker 1: put out on every platform. It's part of my little business.
Speaker 1: So you know, I don't mind. I take calls all day.
Speaker 1: So plus when we're walking, they're gonna help to receive
Speaker 1: some of those calls of encouragement, even they hate, well,
Speaker 1: even they hate ones, they'll take those ship they distract
Speaker 1: me from from what from the grind? Yeah, well, um,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna keep in touch with you as you
Speaker 1: move across that of your you're at the edge of
Speaker 1: California in Arizona. Now there's still a long way to go.
Speaker 1: He has nine hundred and fifty four miles, folks. So
Speaker 1: let's uh, let's let's keep ramon busy as he's walking
Speaker 1: across there, take his mind off his aching feet. And
Speaker 1: you know, we we wish you all the best with that.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's it's an issue that we totally support
Speaker 1: and uh, yeah, we'll definitely keep in touch as you
Speaker 1: make your way across the border, and uh we hope
Speaker 1: to hear good things by the time you're in Texas.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you so much to appreciate your helping
Speaker 1: bringing lights to this issue. All right, Uh, that'll do
Speaker 1: it for now, but we'll be back with Ramon as
Speaker 1: he makes his way across the border. But folks, don't
Speaker 1: turn that down, you know, we'll we'll be doing more
Speaker 1: podcasts with vermone as he goes across the United States.
Speaker 1: So for myself, Steve AlSi, Ramon Castro, thanks you've been
Speaker 1: listening to Self Red Radio.