I will never stop working to protect our Veterans and military families. They fought for this country, we must fight for them.
Continue working to protect Veterans and military families, including by opposing deportation and forced family separation affecting servicemembers, Veterans, and their loved ones.
Occurrences
I will never stop working to protect our Veterans and military families.
SEC. 204. PROTECTING VETERANS AND SERVICE MEMBERS FROM REMOVAL. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, including section 237 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1227), a noncitizen who is a veteran or service member may not be removed from the United States unless the noncitizen has been convicted for a crime of violence.
Evidence
Congress.gov lists Sen. Tammy Duckworth as sponsor of S.3280, introduced 11/09/2023 and referred to Senate Judiciary. The bill would create return/status procedures for removed noncitizen veterans and state that a noncitizen veteran or service member may not be removed except after a qualifying violent-crime conviction.
Congress.gov records Duckworth submitting S.Amdt.4 to S.5 on 01/13/2025; it was ordered to lie on the table. The amendment text inserted the Veterans Visa and Protection Act of 2025, including relief for removed veterans and limits on removal of noncitizen veterans and servicemembers.
Congress.gov lists Duckworth as sponsor of S.3144, introduced 11/06/2025 and referred to Senate Judiciary. The official title says it would require DHS to establish a veterans visa program allowing removed veterans to return as immigrants.
Congress.gov lists Duckworth as sponsor of S.3592, introduced 01/07/2026 and referred to Senate Judiciary. The bill would require DHS to parole spouses, widows or widowers, parents, and children of qualifying current or former Armed Forces members, with denials requiring written justification from DHS, DOD, and VA leadership.
Duckworth’s office said she joined Durbin and Warren in opening an investigation into arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen service members, veterans, and military families. The lawmakers sought data from DHS and DOD on affected service members, veterans, and family members since January 2025 and on effects on readiness and morale.
Duckworth’s office announced that military spouse Deisy Rivera Ortega was released from ICE detention after Duckworth personally called DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. Rivera Ortega, wife of active-duty Army Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, had been detained during a Military Parole in Place interview on 04/14/2026.
Duckworth announced that military spouse Deisy Rivera Ortega was released from ICE detention after Duckworth personally called DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on her behalf. The release followed Ortega's detention during a Military Parole in Place interview, and Duckworth said she would keep working to protect veterans and military families.
AP reported that Duckworth personally contacted DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to advocate for Deisy Rivera Ortega's release, and that Ortega returned home after a month in custody, subject to GPS monitoring, home visits, and ICE check-ins.
Duckworth said her personal call to DHS helped secure Deisy Rivera Ortega's release from ICE detention, directly preventing a military-family separation. In the same statement, she reaffirmed that she would keep working to protect veterans and military families and noted her January introduction of the PROTECT Military Families Act plus earlier immigrant-veteran protection bills.
Duckworth joined an official congressional investigation into arrests, detentions, and deportations of non-citizen service members, veterans, and military families, seeking explanations from DHS and DOD about the impact on readiness and morale.
Congress.gov shows Duckworth as sponsor of S.3144, introduced and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 2025-11-06. The bill's official title says it would create a veterans visa program so removed veterans could return as immigrants.
Congress.gov records Duckworth submitting S.Amdt.4 to S.5 on 2025-01-13. The amendment inserted the Veterans Visa and Protection Act title, but it was ordered to lie on the table and did not advance to enactment.
Assessments
The promise was to keep working to protect veterans and military families, especially by opposing deportation and forced family separation. The strongest evidence shows Duckworth personally intervened with DHS in 2026 and helped secure the release of military spouse Deisy Rivera Ortega from ICE detention, preventing a concrete military-family separation during her Senate term. Additional same-term bills, amendments, and oversight actions reinforce that she actively pursued this promise, but the direct intervention alone is enough to count the pledge as delivered because the claim is framed around ongoing protective action rather than requiring a broad statutory overhaul.
The promise was framed as an ongoing commitment to keep working to protect veterans and military families, especially against deportation and forced family separation, rather than as a specific pledge to pass one named bill. The record shows Duckworth materially carried out that commitment during the same Senate term through direct casework, oversight, and legislation. Most notably, she personally intervened with DHS in the Deisy Rivera Ortega case, and that intervention was followed by Ortega’s release from ICE detention, directly preventing a military-family separation. She also sponsored multiple bills and an amendment aimed at protecting noncitizen veterans, servicemembers, and their families from removal and creating return pathways for deported veterans, and joined an investigation into related detentions and deportations. Because the promise was to continue working on the issue, and the evidence shows both sustained effort and at least one concrete protective result in office, this is best scored as delivered rather than merely partial, even though her broader legislative agenda had not yet been enacted.
Duckworth made same-term federal Senate efforts directly matching the promise: she sponsored and reintroduced bills to protect deported veterans, servicemembers, and military families from removal or separation, filed an amendment with similar protections, joined oversight demands to DHS and DOD, and personally intervened in a 2026 ICE detention case that resulted in a military spouse's release and family reunification. Because the promise was framed as continuing to work and oppose these outcomes, not necessarily enacting a comprehensive statute, these actions satisfy delivery despite the broader bills remaining unenacted.