(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A 41-year-old Army veteran who was deported last year to Mexico is back in the United States – and a step closer, he hopes, to becoming an American citizen.
Miguel Perez Jr. has made his way into Texas from Mexico. He is free to travel to the U.S., finally.
"I haven't been free for almost ten years,” he told WBBM Newsradio’s Steve Miller Monday.
Perez is from Mexico but grew up in Chicago and served in the Army, apparently thinking his military service gave him citizenship. It did not. Then, he got into trouble and was in prison. He was deported and had to leave his family behind.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker recently granted him clemency.
And on Wednesday, Perez has an appointment here in Chicago with immigration officials, to try to become a citizen and live in Chicago.
"Because it's my home. I don't know anything else that's home,” he said.
Perez has two children who live in Chicago.