Veteran Who Has Been in US Since He Was 4 Years Old Faces Deportation

MSN - 07/04
Jose Barco, a Purple Heart recipient who has lived in the U.S. for 35 years, is being held in Texas while awaiting deportation, but it is unclear to where.

Jose Barco, a U.S. Army veteran awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, is currently being held in a Texas detention center awaiting deportation after having lived in the United States for 35 years.

Barco, who is not a U.S. citizen but has served in the military, has a criminal record, having just completed his 15-year prison sentence the day after President Donald Trump's inauguration.

U.S. immigration officials recently tried to deport him, but he was turned away by Venezuelan authorities and now "is virtually stateless at this time, with his country of birth rejecting his admission and the country he shed blood for ordering him removed," Anna Stout, former mayor of Grand Junction, Colorado, who is helping the Barco family, told Newsweek in an email Sunday.

Newsweek has reached out to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) via email on Sunday.

Why It Matters

Trump campaigned on a hardline immigration stance, pledging to carry out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history. In the initial months of his presidency, his adm...
[Short citation of 8% of the original article]