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.
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.
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.