LeSSons of LiFE:Border PoliceMan man,who almost got deported•|Read more|

 After 19 years working as a US border guard, Raul Rodriguez was confronted with a shocking discovery - his US birth certificate was fake, he hadn't been born in Texas as he had always been told.

“That was the worst day ever for me. I realised that my career was done and I had lost everything. I just broke down,” he says. 🎧 https://bbc.in/3KCVF39

Raul was suspended from his job, and then had to fight a legal battle to stay in the country he had served for decades. He had deported thousands of people trying to cross the border illegally and now he was facing deportation himself.

Raul moved to the US when he was five and lived with relatives in Texas. His parents, who lived in Mexico, told him he had been born in America and so had to go to school there.

Raul served in US Navy and then applied for a job in border enforcement. He says it was his experience crossing the border to see family that made him want to do this work.

“It came from when I was a kid, when I would come across the border, the way I was treated, the way people looked at me... the intimidation. They wanted to send me back to Mexico because of how I looked.”

He hoped to make a change and treat people with respect, and would encourage new recruits to do the same.

But in 2018, when his career came to an end, he says even former colleagues turned against him.

“They just drop you... it makes you think you're no longer one of them. So you're an outcast.”

Living as an undocumented resident, he saw what life was like for the people he’d spent his career trying to keep out of the United States. He then found himself at risk of being deported.

“I felt betrayed. I felt let down and used by this country. I served honourably. I did my job to the best of my ability, and for them to turn their back on me like that, they tried very hard to deport me.”

After four stressful years a judge granted him the right to stay in the US. Raul now volunteers with organisations that try to help deported military veterans return to the country.

  Via: https://bbc.in/3KCVF39