A new initiative announced by the Biden administration on Friday will allow immigrants who served in the U.S. military and were later deported to return to the country legally.

As part of this Department of Homeland Security initiative, the department will work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to identify deported veterans to ensure they obtain the VA benefits they and their families are entitled to, including getting vaccinated. 

DHS Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas also ordered the country’s immigration agencies to “develop a rigorous, systematic approach to review the cases of individuals whose removals failed to live up to our highest values,” according to a DHS news release.

“Together with our partner the Department of Veterans Affairs, we are committed to bringing back military service members, veterans, and their immediate family members who were unjustly removed and ensuring they receive the benefits to which they may be entitled,” Secretary Mayorkas said in the news release. “Today we are taking important steps to make that a reality.”  

The immigration agencies – which include U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection - will review their policies to ensure that all eligible current and former noncitizen service members and the immediate families of military members are able to remain in or return country, the release stated. They will also remove barriers to naturalization for those eligible, and improve access to immigration services.