God, this story's a tragedy:
Four years after Barco was born, his family entered the US with asylum, and were later given lawful permanent resident status.
Barco came to the US with his family at 4 years old.
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 joined the Army young, possibly as a path to citizenship (very common, and it's basically supposed to be automatic if you complete a 4-year enlistment), ended up in combat in Iraq and got caught in an IED.
During his military career, Barco had filled out paperwork for citizenship, but his application was never processed for an unknown reason, despite his submitting it. His legal team says his former commander attests to helping him complete and submit the application.
Something went wrong with his citizenship paperwork, maybe it just sat on a desk forever waiting for some officer to sign it.
In October 2009, Barco was sentenced to 52 years after being convicted of firing a gun at a house party in Colorado Springs. He was suffering from PTSD. One of the bullets he fired hit a 19-year-old woman in the leg.
Barco is 39, he was born in 1986, therefore he enlisted 2003-04 at the age of 17. If he did a standard enlistment tour (4 years active duty, 4 years reserve) he would have still been in his reserve duty time in 2009 and should have access to military medical services, but... it can be hard to get real care for PTSD while you're still in. Either his command wasn't taking care of him or he wasn't taking care of himself or both. When the shooting incident happened the Army just washed its hands of him, having failed to give him the citizenship he earned or provide adequate care.
Barco was released on parole this January after serving 15 years due to good behavior.
Maybe Barco had access to counseling in prison, maybe he just had time to think.
Upon release, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detained Barco and took him to a detention center in Colorado.
Barco joined the military two years after September 11. He got out of prison into a very different country, one that doesn't care about his service. He's just another number for ICE's quota, an easy one because he's already in custody.
In September, an immigration judge denied Barco’s relief appeals, which included an application for asylum, and ordered for the veteran’s removal from the US without specifying a date.
[...]
Most families know at a minimum where their loved ones will be deported to when they are facing a removal order, but Jose’s family has been kept in the dark about his whereabouts and his destination at every stage of this process.
Finally, after using him up and abusing him, the state throws him away carelessly.
What a disgusting abdication of state responsibility.
