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 CHICAGO -- Supporters of a local army veteran scheduled to be deported spoke out Monday. 
 
 Miguel Perez Jr is facing deportation because of a drug case. He lost his appeal last week. 
 
 Perez moved to Chicago when he was 8-years-old. He joined the U.S. Army and served two tours of duty in Afghanistan. He became a legal resident when he enlisted in 2001, but he was not a citizen. 
 
 While in Afghanistan, he suffered a brain injury in an explosion. 
 
 Perez's friends and family say that injury, and the post traumatic stress disorder he later developed, made it difficult for him to find work when he returned to Chicago. They say he then started selling drugs. 
 
 In February of 2010, Perez was convicted of selling more than two-pounds of cocaine. 
 
 He has spent the last year in an ICE facility in Wisconsin. 
 
 Perez has two children, both U.S. citizens, an 18-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. He's worried he won't be able to see them again if he's deported. 
 
 His family is urging Gov Rauner to pardon Perez. 
 
 A lawyer says Perez's life would be in danger if he went back to Mexico. The judge in the case says he's not convinced that's true. ||||| (WBBM Newsradio) — He is an Army veteran and a green card holder and has served time for a felony drug conviction. 
 
 Now, the family and friends of Miguel Perez are trying to save him from being deported to Mexico and are asking Gov. Bruce Rauner to pardon him. 
 
 They stood in front of the downtown offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, and prayed for 39-year-old Perez. 
 
 Perez — a green card holder who served two tours in Afghanistan — is being held in immigration detention in Kenosha. 
 
 He joined the demonstration by phone. 
 
 “The system has been killing me slowly, and now I’m facing death if I’m deported to Mexico, so I would rather die in the country I fought for than in a place that’s not my home.” 
 
 Perez and his supporters say he would be in danger if he’s deported to Mexico. He hasn’t lived there since he was 8. 
 
 Last week, a federal court rejected his bid to stay. Now, his supporters are trying last-ditch efforts. 
 
 Perez’s advocates say the veteran is beginning a hunger strike to draw attention to his case and those of other so-called green card veterans. 
 
 Gov. Rauner’s office says the petition is under review. ||||| A U.S. Army veteran and green card holder with a felony drug conviction began a hunger strike Wednesday to protest his likely deportation, after a federal court denied his appeal to remain in the U.S., where he has lived since age 8. 
 
 Miguel Perez Jr., 39, a Chicago resident who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan and recently finished a prison term on a drug conviction, had sought to remain in the U.S., arguing his life would be in danger if he were deported to Mexico, where drug cartels target veterans with combat experience to work on their behalf, or else. 
 
 A three-judge panel for the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected that argument last week. 
 
 Perez said he believes deportation means certain death and the only thing left to do is commence an “extreme fast” until he is granted relief. 
 
 "If it comes down to me being deported, I would rather leave this world in the country I gave my heart for,” Perez said in an interview from the detention center where he has been in custody for the last year. 
 
 Perez, who has two children who are U.S. citizens, is one of many legal permanent residents who served in the U.S. military then confronted the possibility of deportation to their native countries after committing a crime. 
 
 Perez said he mistakenly thought he became a U.S. citizen when he took an oath to protect the nation. He says his military superiors never offered to help him expedite his citizenship. 
 
 Family photo Miguel Perez Jr. served in the Army. Miguel Perez Jr. served in the Army. (Family photo) (Family photo) 
 
 After his military service, Perez sought treatment at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Maywood, where doctors diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was supposed to return for more tests to determine whether he also had a traumatic brain injury. 
 
 In the meantime, he reconnected with a childhood friend who provided free drugs and alcohol. On Nov. 26, 2008, while with that friend, Perez handed a laptop case containing cocaine to an undercover officer. Perez pleaded guilty to the drug charge and served half of a 15-year prison sentence. 
 
 While Perez was convicted of delivering less than 100 grams of cocaine, prosecutors have said he was arrested for delivering much more and received a reduced sentence after a plea deal. Prosecutors also pointed out that Perez was given a general discharge from the military after a drug infraction. 
 
 Perez said he discovered the citizenship oversight when he was summoned to immigration court shortly before his September 2016 release from Hill Correctional Center in Galesburg. Instead of heading home to Chicago from prison, Perez was placed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and transferred to a Wisconsin detention center for immigrants awaiting deportation. 
 
 Perez’s attorney Chris Bergin said he has filed a stay on two grounds. One is based on a medical evaluation finding that Perez needs immediate attention for PTSD and his brain injury. The other seeks retroactive citizenship for Perez to when he joined the military in 2001. 
 
 Perez and his supporters are also preparing, if necessary, to file an appeal to the full panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit and have asked Gov. Bruce Rauner to grant a pardon to Perez for his criminal conviction, supporters said. If Rauner grants the pardon, it’s not clear how that might affect the deportation case. 
 
 Carlos Luna, founder and president of a green card veteran chapter of the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), said he’s deeply troubled by Perez’s decision to fast, given his physical and mental condition. 
 
 “It’s pretty ridiculous that a veteran has to go on a hunger strike just to be able to stay,” Luna said. “Just last night our president was talking about uniting the country and the reverence for veterans. 
 
 Luna said even though military service left Perez disabled, he has not been able to access in detention the medical care available to most veterans. 
 
 “I don’t think it should come to this,” Luna added. “He’s definitely not getting the care he’s earned.” 
 
 mbrachear@chicagotribune.com 
 
 Twitter @Tribseeker 
 
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– An Army vet and longtime green card holder has begun a hunger strike after failing to block his deportation to Mexico, which could be imminent because of a felony drug conviction. Fearing drug cartels will kill him after a failed attempt to recruit him for his military background, 39-year-old Miguel Perez Jr. of Chicago says an "extreme fast" is his only avenue after an appeals court denied his request to remain in the only home he's known since age 8, reports the Chicago Tribune. That decision last week stemmed from a conviction for delivering less than 100 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer in 2008, though prosecutors say a plea deal masked that the real amount was significantly more. Perez, who has two American children, argues he only got mixed up with drugs because of a PTSD diagnosis following two tours in Afghanistan. Perez was also to undergo tests for a traumatic brain injury—WGN reports he was injured in an explosion—but was arrested before that could happen, per the Tribune. After serving half of a 15-year sentence, he was summoned to immigration court, placed in the custody of customs officers, and taken to a detention center in Wisconsin, where he's been for more than a year. "The system has been killing me slowly, and now I'm facing death if I'm deported to Mexico, so I would rather die in the country I fought for than in a place that's not my home," he tells CBS Chicago of the hunger strike started Wednesday. His lawyer has filed two stays, one arguing Perez needs immediate medical attention, and another seeking retroactive citizenship dating to 2001, when Perez joined the military. His supporters are also asking Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner for a pardon.