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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
The big issue is that Trump promised his supporters that he would root out the millions of "criminal illegals" in the country who "rig the vote" for Democrats. It turns out, though, that the undocumented people who are here are just as law-abiding as everyone else. (And they don't vote, because they can't, and they understand that misrepresenting that is a sure ticket to getting kicked out.)
So in order for Kristi Noem to keep her made-for-TV raids on the air, they need to go after hardened criminals like students, veterans, and gay people. As well as non-citizens who are already in the system (and abiding by the law). There is no plan, other than to harass anyone who looks like they don't belong, and let them know they are not welcome here.
It's hard finding criminals because they are the ones who have a vested interest in being undercover. People who think the law protects them foolishly get jobs and pay taxes.
I always found the stereotype that immigrants commit more crimes counterintuitive. Without looking at the statistics, my instinct would be that they are less likely to commit crime because they don't want to be deported, and that undocumented immigrants would especially try to avoid drawing any attention to themselves.
when you look at the statistics you'll find not only do they commit fewer crimes but they have an effect of bringing crime down in neighborhoods they live in
You're acting like this wasn't the intention all along... They laid the groundwork with the claims of criminal immigrants, got the MAGA crowd frothing at the mouth about it, and then started deporting people.
Their supporters just need to hear that "the bad guys are getting deported," and they celebrate. They don't know, or really care, that 90% of these people have no criminal record.
More specifically, many don't know. Many still know and are completely on board with it. This is absolutely what was intended.
Turns out that manufacturing consent in the age of MAGA and Fox News is trivially easy (another intended consequence of decades of propaganda).
Well, this dude did fire a random shot into a crowd and hit a pregnant teenager. He got out of prison early and was picked up by ICE from there.
Dude has a serious brain injury and PTSD. He should have received the best treatment he could get. He should have received citizenship immediately upon earning his Purple Heart (or fighting for the US in the first place). He should have been afforded a path to a decent life.
He wasn’t. He committed a senseless crime, probably directly as a result of his brain injury and ptsd that he got defending a country he had lived in since he was a toddler.
Even considering his violent act, he spent over a decade in prison and “paid his debt to society”. Of course it isn’t about that. It isn’t about rehabilitation. It’s about punishment, and because he happened to be born a few years before his family brought him here, before he could ever even think about where he wanted to be, he gets to live the rest of his life in misery.
A recipient of a Purple Heart, a war hero. And oh boy, he’s gonna spend the rest of his life paying for that.
Breaks my heart and I wish I could help him in some way.
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.
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?”
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.
They are no different than slaves to him. Slaves to be used and discarded once they are done. This has actually been the norm throughout history. It is why very few people wanted to be soldiers in the past. They weren't respected, and weren't well paid and weren't treated well afterward.
The whole idea of giving ex-soldiers benefits after the war is a fairly new idea in history. Historically the only people who did it were the Romans. If you were a roman legionaire and served 20 years you were given a plot of land. If you weren't a Roman citizen you got that at the end, too.
But that was a uniquely Roman thing. For the most part if soldiers did get something out of war it was due to plunder. That was actually the principle motivation for many common people who went to war.
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?
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.
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".
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.
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.