US border official deported thousands, then learns he is undocumented

Raul Rodriguez was shaken after he realized that his life was built on a lie. In a matter of seconds, a family secret had shattered the way he saw the world and his place in it.

“That day will never leave my mind. … It’s a terrible feeling,” he says.

It was in April 2018 when federal investigators showed him a shocking document: a Mexican birth certificate with his name on it.

The US birth certificate he’d used for decades was fraudulent. He was an undocumented immigrant. His father, for the first time in Raul Rodriguez’s 54 years of life, confessed that he had been born in Mexico. It was too late. The former Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent had just been put on administrative leave, then fired in 2019 as he no longer met the citizenship requirements to be a CBP agent.

Talking to CNN, Rodriguez said he had no idea he’d been born in Mexico before his father’s confession that day, but he knew immediately how serious the situation was. He’d spent nearly two decades working for the US government at the border.

By his estimates, he’d helped deport thousands of people while working for US Customs and Border Protection and before that, for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Suddenly, he found himself on the opposite end of the spectrum, fighting for a chance to stay in the United States.

Deportation would mean leaving his wife, an immigration agent, their four children, and five grandchildren behind. His saving grace was the fact that he was a veteran who had served in Iceland and the Persian gulf as a member of the navy police.

As soon as he was placed on leave, and then fired, Rodriguez’s life turned upside down. Many friends that he thought he had made in his many years at the agency disappeared. His phone went quiet and even acquaintances at the local restaurant pretended not to notice him. By his estimate, Rodriguez had deported thousands of undocumented immigrants.

But now, nearly five years later, Rodriguez says he realizes he also gained something surprising after that moment when he learned he wasn’t a US citizen.

In his free time, Rodriguez is doing what he can to support efforts to bring deported veterans back to the United States and help those who’ve recently returned find their footing. He also tries to help advocates track down veterans in immigration custody.

Once his own immigration case is resolved, Rodriguez says he hopes to work more directly with veterans inside and outside the US to help them navigate the immigration system.

(With inputs from agencies)

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