A Purple Heart recipient who served two tours in Iraq has been deported from Arizona on the morning of Nov. 14. The man was born overseas, and moved legally to the U.S. when he was a kid. FOX 10's Brian Webb reports.

Florence

Jose Barco, a 39-year-old Venezuelan national and Purple Heart recipient, was deported from an ICE facility in Florence, Arizona. Barco, who came to the United States as a refugee at age four and served two tours in Iraq, was released from prison after serving 15 years for attempted murder and other charges related to a 2008 incident in Colorado Springs.

Following his release, Barco was detained by ICE and ultimately deported to Nogales, Mexico, despite advocacy efforts on his behalf. ICE stated that Barco was removed due to his criminal convictions, while activists and family members expressed concern about his lack of ties to Venezuela or Cuba, where his family originally fled as refugees.

Purple Heart veteran in Arizona deported by ICE

A Purple Heart combat veteran deported from Arizona early this morning, and tonight he's in an unknown country. He served two tours of duty in Iraq, but also spent time in prison here at home. Fox 10's Brian Webb has more. Immigration activists tell me that Jose Barco was taken from this ICE facility in Florence, Arizona, and flown to another country early this morning. It's the latest chapter in a complicated story. A war hero overseas gets into trouble back home and is now sent away, possibly for good. I'm heartbroken every day, frankly, because of what's happening in our community. Immigration activists are angry, fighting for the rights of Purple Heart recipient Jose Barco, deported from this ICE facility in Florence this morning to an unknown country. We have a veteran who was deported today at four in the morning, a Purple Heart veteran. Thirty-nine-year-old Jose Barco is a Venezuelan national. He came to this country legally as a refugee, as a four-year-old child with his family. Enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17, deployed twice to Iraq. His family says Barco applied for citizenship while overseas, but were told his paperwork was lost. Then Barco received a Purple Heart after being severely injured by an IED explosion. Jose was on fire as he lifted this truck off of his fellow soldiers and dragged them to safety. When Barco got back, he began suffering from PTSD and spent 15 years in prison on attempted murder charges after firing a gun into a group of teenagers at a house party in Colorado Springs in 2008. A bullet hit a 19-year-old pregnant woman in the leg. And what we're asking here for is to bring Jose back, to bring all the deported veterans back to the United States who served our country. Barco was sentenced to 52 years but released after 15 as a model prisoner. He left prison one day after President Trump's inauguration and ICE agents were waiting with orders to deport any undocumented immigrant convicted of a crime. He was sent to this ICE facility in Florence on Veterans Day and after fighting his deportation over and over, Jose Barco finally gave up. The conditions are so unbearable that he feels he has no choice left. That's not a decision of a free man. That's the decision of someone being crushed by a cruel system designed to force people out of this country. Barco's family fled Cuba as refugees and went to Venezuela before coming to this country. Family and friends are afraid he might be sent back to one of those countries even though he no longer has ties to either one. In Florence, I'm Brian Webb, Fox 10 News. We reached out to ICE about this case. They declined to an interview with us but released this statement saying in part, Barco was released after serving time for a conviction of attempted murder, extreme indifference and felony menacing with a real or simulated weapon. They say he was removed to Nogales, Mexico this morning.

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