Jose Barco in Iraq in 2007.
Tia Barco
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Tia Barco
This week a number of dozen Venezuelan nationals had been transferred from a U.S. immigration detention middle in south Texas and boarded a deportation flight to their residence nation.
Amongst them was 39-year-old Jose Barco, a embellished American soldier who deployed twice to Iraq, noticed horrific fight and obtained a Purple Coronary heart after an explosion tossed him via the air and left him with a traumatic mind damage.
He was simply 4 years previous when his household left Venezuela, a rustic his father fled to after he was being launched as a political prisoner in Cuba. Jose Barco’s fellow inmates in Texas, most of them a lot youthful, merely name him “Cuba.”
How an American veteran, a father of a 15-year-old daughter, discovered himself inside this sprawling detention middle outdoors Corpus Christi, Texas, ready for a flight to a rustic he barely is aware of is a tortured story of battlefield trauma, bureaucratic bumbling and finally, a critical crime.
“His state of affairs is extremely advanced and tragic,” mentioned Anna Stout, a former mayor of Grand Junction, Colo., who helps his household, advised NPR. “It is the story of a number of failures of the U.S. navy in the case of certainly one of its personal troopers, of a person who fought and bled for the US believing he was incomes his proper to be referred to as an American solely to search out himself in deportation proceedings, and of the tragic intersection of a brand new age of immigration coverage and unlucky parole timing.”
On Thursday Barco’s journey took one other sudden twist: when he arrived in Honduras en path to Venezuela, the Venezuelan authorities there refused to take him. In keeping with his household, the Venezuelan immigration officers did not consider Barco’s beginning certificates was real; they mentioned it regarded too new. They mentioned his accent sounded Cuban to them, plus he did not know his Venezuelan nationwide identification card quantity (referred to as a cedula). One even advised Barco it would not be good for him in Venezuela, as a result of he has no household there.
Barco now sits, once more, at a U.S. detention middle, this time at Port Isabel, close to Los Fresnos, Texas, questioning what nation will take him — if not the one he risked his life for in Iraq.
“I really feel very scared for him,” mentioned his spouse, Tia. “America shouldn’t be sending a embellished veteran to Venezuela.”
Now that Venezuela additionally has rejected him she mentioned, “We’ve no clue methods to navigate this as of now. This complete ordeal has been unimaginable.”
An act of heroism
Barco deployed to Iraq in the summertime of 2004 with a unit from Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo. He was a non-public with Charlie Firm, from the first Battalion of the 506th Regiment. His unit was in western Iraq, at a time of fierce combating in opposition to rebel forces and automotive bombs. Whereas Barco was on patrol in November together with his platoon, a automotive laden with explosives swerved and went airborne, erupting in flames.
A portrait of Jose Barco when he first enlisted in 2003.
Tia Barco/tktk
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Tia Barco/tktk
Ryan Krebbs was the corporate medic. As he was treating a wounded soldier amid the mud and smoke, he noticed Barco lifting the entrance finish of the burning automotive, which had two troopers pinned beneath it. “They had been unconscious when he pulled them out,” Krebbs remembered. “[Barco] was on hearth after lifting the automotive.”
Barco mentioned he remembered none of that, solely being thrown in opposition to a wall.
“I sort of keep in mind the influence of the explosion,” Barco advised the PBS collection Frontline, which aired a narrative in 2010 about his unit referred to as The Wounded Platoon. “They advised me I used to be simply strolling round. Strolling round in circles or no matter, simply cursing out loud. However I do not keep in mind that.”
Barco was handled for burns to his fingers and thigh, in addition to a lacerated lip. However Frontline reported there was no file that he misplaced consciousness for a number of minutes or any suspicion of a potential mind damage. So Barco quickly obtained additional therapy at Brooke Military Medical Heart in Texas for burns however no therapy for traumatic mind damage (TBI).
Months later, Barco observed ringing in his ears, and navy medical doctors at Fort Carson realized he had a head damage stemming from the November 2004 explosion, in line with Frontline. He might have obtained a medical discharge with advantages, however he needed to return to Iraq, telling them he was match for responsibility.
Barco was advised that his burns and listening to loss certified him for an honorable medical retirement from the Military, which would go away him with a lifelong pension and free healthcare with the VA.
However Barco pressed his medical doctors to let him return to his unit,
although he was affected by nightmares and sleeplessness.
“I advised my medical doctors, ‘Hey, I would like, like, to return,” Barco mentioned within the documentary. “They had been me like, ‘No manner, you are loopy, it is best to get evaluated, psychologically. They labored with me they usually lowered my profile they usually dropped every part. Trigger, you recognize, if you wish to go, they are going to allow you to go, except you are paralyzed or one thing like that. They want individuals.”
Barco made it again to Iraq within the fall of 2006, through the surge of forces meant to tamp down the growing sectarian violence. Just a few months earlier than this, on July 6, certainly one of Barco’s commanding officers, Lt. Col. Michael “Hutch” Hutchinson, helped him fill out the varieties to turn out to be a naturalized citizen. For noncitizens, one of many guarantees of becoming a member of the navy is that it is a path to U.S. citizenship.
“I distinctly keep in mind Jose Barco finishing and submitting his software for United States citizenship,” Hutchinson wrote in a February 2025 memo for immigration officers. “He was absolutely eligible and with processing timelines at USCIS on the time ought to have been permitted by the top of calendar yr 2006. … In some unspecified time in the future the packet was misplaced and we’ve got not been capable of finding a series of custody doc.”
Legal conduct
By the point he returned residence in December 2007, Barco’s TBI signs worsened after he was uncovered to nonetheless extra explosions in Iraq, telling medical doctors he felt dazed and had reminiscence issues. He was prescribed a wide range of medicine, from Tylenol to Buspar, a psychoactive anti-anxiety drug. Barco mentioned the medicine did not assist. He was discharged in 2008, when he was 23.
Steve Xenakis, a retired Military brigadier common and psychiatrist, mentioned Barco’s accidents occurred when the Military had but to grasp all these hidden wounds.
“This was at a time when the Military was not acknowledging the numerous results of blast concussions,” Xenakis mentioned, including that such a head damage can worsen PTSD. “You actually cannot management your feelings. You turn out to be irrational, impulsive.”
What occurred subsequent with Barco, Xenakis mentioned, was “not shocking in any respect.” His psychological well being issues changed into felony conduct.
In April, 2008, Barco was driving previous a home get together in Colorado Springs, the place he had earlier that evening been kicked out for firing a bullet right into a basement ceiling.
Barco pulled out a handgun and shot right into a crowd of youngsters standing on a porch. A bullet struck 19-year-old Ginny Clemens, who was pregnant. It left her with a critical leg damage. Clemens declined to talk with NPR via a relative. Barco has mentioned he has no reminiscence of what occurred.
Barco was finally charged with two counts of tried first-degree homicide and one rely of menacing. Fourth Judicial District Choose Larry Schwartz sentenced him to 52 years, calling the crime “gorgeous in its lack of compassion. It brings appreciable dishonor upon the uniform you wore,” in line with a narrative within the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Barco ended up spending 15 years in jail, the place he was a mannequin prisoner, instructing English and math. And for good conduct, his sentence was lowered. A parole board launched him on his first listening to. He walked out of jail on Jan. 21, 2025, at some point after President Trump was inaugurated the place he vowed to crack down on crime and unlawful immigration.
Barco deliberate on heading to a household reunion in Florida. As a substitute he noticed brokers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ready for him. He was hustled right into a van.
“I used to be shocked. I advised my case supervisor, ‘It is a joke, proper? I am a retired veteran,’ ” Barco advised the Gazette.
Ryan Krebbs, the previous Military medic, and Barco’s spouse, Tia, mentioned they employed a non-public lawyer and paid $400 for a session, then discovered a professional bono lawyer in Colorado to assist together with his case. However when Barco was transferred to Texas they searched in useless for one more professional bono immigration lawyer. Those they contacted had been too busy.
They reached out to the American Civil Liberties Union however had been advised the ACLU doesn’t take particular person immigration instances.
Barco was ordered to be deported to Venezuela by Assistant Chief Immigration Choose Mathew Kaufman in February at Aurora, Colo. Barco mentioned he was not concerned about interesting, although the decide requested, “Are you positive?” Barco later advised his brother he was “disillusioned and drained. Ship me to a rustic that can settle for me, since my nation does not,” in line with the Gazette.
“Jose’s spirit’s simply damaged,” mentioned Krebbs, the medic. “They defeated him for positive.”
Krebbs and the opposite supporters inform NPR they will not surrender. They hope he can possibly get to Mexico the place he can get entry to higher well being care and a greater life. They’re additionally hoping that Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis will pardon him, opening Barco up once more to potential American citizenship. NPR reached out to Polis’ workplace, which didn’t remark earlier than publication.
“He is an American and that is how he sees himself,” Krebbs mentioned. “He is a disabled fight veteran who saved those that day. In my eyes he is an American hero.”
Krebbs can perceive how some, together with Ginny Clemens and her household, might discover no sympathy for Barco. “What he did was terrible. He is aware of what he did was fallacious. He served his time and must be allowed one other probability,” Krebbs mentioned.
Hutchinson, the Military officer, mentioned in his February memo to immigration authorities that Barco’s “peculiar authorized residence standing places him at excessive danger of private hurt if he’s extradited.”
In an interview with NPR, Hutchinson mentioned, “Should you cherry choose the information of his story we might name him a hero or a villain.”
Nonetheless, he referred to as Barco an “upstanding particular person,” who did his time, including his story is “a logo of how the jail system is meant to work.”
“It boggles the thoughts. How one can pin a Purple Coronary heart on somebody and never give them citizenship,” mentioned Danitza James with the League of United Latin American Residents. The group is monitoring some 400 hundred veterans who’ve been deported or are in that course of, going again to the early Nineties.
James is a two-tour fight veteran who served as a gunner on convoys in Iraq. She held a inexperienced card on the time, and twice had her citizenship ceremony cancelled as a result of the Military ordered her to redeploy. When she left the navy she was nonetheless not a citizen, James says, and he or she was later naturalized when she married one other soldier.
“ I left the navy with an expired inexperienced card,” says James.
James says LULAC is urging politicians in Texas and Colorado to intervene and let Barco be moved to a VA hospital for medical analysis.
Tia Barco, who’s American, mentioned ICE brokers earlier this week requested her husband about his citizenship software from 2006.
“However he did not ask why they had been inquiring,” she mentioned.
NPR reached out to ICE for remark, however they did not reply.
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