"An army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who served two tours in Iraq was deported on Friday morning from an immigration detention facility in Florence, Arizona. Arizona state representative Raquel Teran told Fox 10 Phoenix that Jose Barco, a Venezuelan-born veteran whose family fled Cuba as refugees, was deported at 4am from Arizona. Anna Stout, a volunteer on Barco's defense team, told Denver 7 his team was not notified of plans for his deportation and his family was initially not told of where they would be taking him. Jose was not able to reach out to his family before any of this initiated, she told the news outlet, adding that the process has been frustrating."
"Barco enlisted in the army at 17 and served two tours in Iraq. Barco was injured by an improvised explosive device during one of his deployments, and received a Purple Heart for his service in combat. He was also awarded a Combat Infantry Badge. During his military career, Barco had filled out paperwork for citizenship, which reportedly was lost during processing, the Denver Gazette reported in February, shortly after Barco was detained."
Jose Barco, a Venezuelan-born permanent resident who served two Iraq tours and received a Purple Heart and Combat Infantry Badge, was deported from an Arizona detention facility to Nogales, Mexico. Barco’s family fled Cuba to Venezuela and later entered the United States, where they received permanent resident status. Barco enlisted at 17, was wounded by an IED, and later filled out citizenship paperwork that was reportedly lost. He served 15 years of a 52-year sentence for an attempted murder conviction, was released on parole in January, then detained by ICE and deported despite a court removal order to Venezuela, Cuba, or Mexico.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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