Trump Is Trying to Deport a Purple Heart Veteran. You Could Be Next
www.rollingstone.com
The Trump administration wants to kick Jose Barco, a decorated Iraq War veteran with a criminal conviction, out of the country.

Summary

In a harsh example of Trump’s immigration crackdown, U.S. Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient Jose Barco faces deportation to Venezuela, despite serving in Iraq and suffering severe combat injuries.

After his citizenship application vanished during service and he served prison time for a violent offense linked to untreated trauma, ICE detained him upon release.

Venezuela won’t accept him, leaving him stateless.

Barco’s case spotlights the Trump administration’s punitive policies toward veterans, erosion of due process, and broader threats to constitutional rights under his increasingly authoritarian leadership.

  • Drusas@fedia.io
    0·
    11 days ago

    Isn’t it against some UN rule for a member state to cause an individual to become stateless?

  • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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    11 days ago

    Okay I’m of the opinion that American veterans of any war since WWII deserve to get screwed by their government, but even I have to say: This is fucked up. I mean I still have no sympathy for imperialist stooges, but what the shit Trump?

    • grysbok@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Military service is one of the ways out of poverty we dangle at young people. I can’t blame an 18-year-old for wanting in on the GI bill. Student loans suck.

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
        0·
        11 days ago

        Okay, and? The crimes American soldiers committed against the Iraqi people (including waging an illegal war of aggression in the first place) aren’t something that can be excused by “but they offered me money”.

        • vxx@lemmy.world
          0·
          11 days ago

          You can blame them for their crimes, but not for getting drafted. They didn’t have a choice.

      • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        0·
        11 days ago

        Or people just wanting to get out of wherever they lived their whole lives. There’s also still living veterans who were drafted for Vietnam.

  • Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    It is insane how I have to crawl around Lemmy to see this. A story like this would be flown on an over pass on highways across the country if this was reversed politically. There would be a clownvoy honking across the highway until every person was aware of this.

  • SarcasticMan@lemmy.world
    0·
    11 days ago

    It’s always the guy who did everything he could to dodge the draft who treats veterans like some sort of lesser being because they didn’t have the cash to get bone spurs.

    And my fellow veterans eat his shit like it’s made of butterscotch and diamonds. Fucking pathetic.

    • whoisjake@lemm.ee
      0·
      11 days ago

      I know it varies by region but don’t be fooled, many vets I know, myself included, are not in support of this shit.

    • DarthKaren@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      Fellow vet: I never understood fellow service member’s blind servitude to the GOP. They fuck us over ever chance they get, and we’re dogs at a dog show for them only when it’s convenient. When they show up at a base, it’s either a completely scripted Q&A, with questions vetted weeks to months ahead of time, or they show and are guided around by the base commander and make a super quick appearance at whatever event.

      My favorite was the 1 time Cathy McMorris did a debate. She touted helping 100’s of vets a month. Her opponent: “If you are really helping the vets, you wouldn’t have 100’s a month with issues.”

      • Kitty Jynx@lemmy.world
        0·
        11 days ago

        I hated those visits. We had to field day our shop and barracks for the better part of the week prior. That put us so far behind we’d have to work 6 days a week 12+ hours a day just to catch up.

        • DarthKaren@lemmy.world
          0·
          11 days ago

          Those fucking voluntold assemblies on day shift. That’s ok, we don’t have jets to work on. I don’t have 10 computers to fix that will be kicked off the network tomorrow if I don’t patch them. Nah, we can stop this ISO inspection that is already behind. All so you can give some vapid speech and peace out before anyone else can talk to you.

        • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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          11 days ago

          I am certain that every sailor who had to cover up McCains name on the ship for his visit would love to see him waterboarded in a Vietnamese prison camp.

      • SarcasticMan@lemmy.world
        0·
        11 days ago

        It gets pretty ripe listening to guys bitch up one side of the mountain and down the other about how the Libtards are screwing them over. Then praise a guy who can’t get un fucked long enough to show up to a veterans event because it’s a golf day but in the same week ask for a 4-mile-long military parade for his birthday.

        • DarthKaren@lemmy.world
          0·
          11 days ago

          Rogers showed up to a kid’s fund run. There were all of like 15 kids there. 3 of them mine. She wouldn’t talk to anyone that wasn’t an officer. She wasn’t even there when the race started. Kid’s fund run and she couldn’t even stay and see it through or even walk the thing.

    • theangryseal@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      I am surprised that the “thank ya fer ya service” crowd isn’t throwing a fit.

      Thank you for your service mostly means, “look at me being a real good boy! Are you happy I’m a real good boy?! I thought about joining! Did you know that I thought about it? Mama said I have flat feet. Did I say thank you for your service?”

      • finder@lemmy.world
        0·
        11 days ago

        I am surprised that the “thank ya fer ya service” crowd isn’t throwing a fit.

        Their media ain’t covering these stories. And if the media is covering the story, they find the single person that lines up with what-ever narrative they want and run with it. Facts be damned if they fucked over 99 other innocent people to get that single guilty looking person.

      • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
        0·
        11 days ago

        It’s about in-group membership. In-group loyalty to trump is supreme, followed by Republican party, with American a distant third.

        It’s not about values or internal consistency. It’s about belonging.

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
    0·
    10 days ago

    I’ve got an idea for all these at risk vets… They should band together and uh… Well, let’s just say that 6 Jan happened.

  • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    10 days ago

    In France, if a member of the Foreign Legion is wounded, they are automatically granted French citizenship. This is known in France as Français par le sang verse. French by spilled blood.

    Why the US doesn’t have the same makes no sense. If you were a green card holder, and you served in the US military and were wounded, citizenship should be yours for the asking at any time. No need for any lengthy legal shit.

  • LeninOnAPrayer@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    Sounds about right. I know we all like to pretend Trump is “the worst”. And he is. But hear me out.

    In no time in US history (except maybe post WW2 for white men) has this country ever respected the young adults that happened to survive from wars.

    It’s just a different level of “fuck you” this time.

    • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 days ago

      Didn’t Trump abandon hundreds of Afghanis who worked as translators etc?

      The war machine is a meat grinder. Always has been. Always will be.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    I beat him to it. I escaped from the USA during Trump’s first term. Not going back. I’m also a veteran and everything about Trump and his cult reminded me of the countries that we are always spying on and invading.