Activists express worries after AZ Purple Heart combat veteran was deported

The backstory:

Barco’s family fled Cuba as refugees, and they first went to Venezuela, where Barco was born. He came to U.S. legally with his family when he was four. and enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17.

During his time in the Army, Barco was deployed to Iraq twice. He applied for citizenship while overseas, but was told his paperwork was lost.

After he was severely injured in an explosion that involved an improvised explosive device (IED), Barco received a Purple Heart.

“Jose was on fire as he lifted this truck off of his fellow soldiers, and dragged them to safety,” said Ricardo Reyes, Executive Director for Vets First.

Dig deeper:

When Barco returned to the U.S. from his overseas stint, he began suffering from PTSD, and spent years in prison on attempted murder charges for firing a gun into a group of teenagers at a house party in Colorado Springs, Colo. in 2008, and hitting a 19-year-old pregnant woman in the leg.

Barco was sentenced to 52 years in prison, but was released after 15. When he left prison one day after President Trump’s inauguration. ICE agents were waiting. He was ultimately sent on Veterans Day to the ICE facility in Florence.

Related:

Purple Heart recipient who served prison sentence deported, lawyer says

On Friday, advocates for Barco said he had been removed from the country from a facility in Arizona. Barco’s lawyer, Kevin T. O’Connor Jr., said ICE has since confirmed Barco has been deported to Nogales, Mexico.

“No additional information regarding his post-removal whereabouts or custodial status has been provided,” he told The Washington Post in an email Saturday, adding that his team was “assessing all legally available avenues for further action.”

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The process of applying for naturalization while serving in the military is complex and unclear, experts and veterans have previously told The Post.

Scott Mechkowski, who spent 30 years in the Army and 22 years in ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, said Barco’s case represented a “catastrophic failure” of the system, as he had filed for naturalization before his crime but his application was not processed.