US army veteran who received Purple Heart deported by ICE to Mexico | US immigration
An Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and a Purple Heart grant recipient was deported from an immigration detention facility in Florence, Arizona, Friday morning.
Arizona state representative Raquel Terán said Fox 10Phoenix Jose Barco, a Venezuelan-born veteran whose family fled Cuba as refugees, was deported from Arizona at 4 a.m.
Anna Stout, a volunteer on Barco’s defense team. He told Denver 7 His team were not informed of plans to deport him, and his family were not initially told where they would be taking him.
“Jose was unable to reach his family before these events started,” she told the news outlet, adding that the process was “frustrating.”
Immigration officials told Fox 10 that Barco was deported to Nogales, Mexico.
Court pre-ordered To be taken to Venezuela, Cuba or Mexico.
Barco’s father is a Political dissident in Cuba He opposed communism and forced his family to flee to Venezuela in the 1980s. Four years after Barco’s birth, his family entered the United States and were granted permanent resident status.
Barco enlisted in the military at age 17 and served two tours of duty in Iraq. Barco was injured improvised explosive device He received a Purple Heart during one of his missions and for his service in combat. He was also awarded the Combat Infantry Badge. The Denver Gazette reported in February, shortly after Barco was taken into custody, that during his military career, Barco had filled out paperwork required for citizenship and that paperwork was lost in the process.
Barco, 39, served 15 years in prison for attempted murder. In October 2009, Barco was convicted of firing a gun at a house party in Colorado Springs and sentenced to 52 years in prison. He was suffering from PTSD. One of the bullets he fired hit the leg of a 19-year-old woman.
Barco was released on parole this January after serving 15 years for good behavior. After his release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Barco and took him to a detention center in Colorado.
In September, an immigration judge rejected Barco’s appeals for relief, which included his asylum application, and ordered the veteran removed from the United States without specifying a date.
Stout told Denver 7 that the detainee’s online location system showed Barco had been removed from the country, but the defense team was not notified of Barco’s location.
“This has been incredibly difficult for his family,” Stout said. “And to add insult to injury, as you can imagine right now, they are dealing with not only the weight of it all, but also the uncertainty of what will happen to their loved ones.”
The Guardian has contacted Barco’s defense team for comment.
