A U.S. Army veteran who received a Purple Heart for injuries sustained while serving in Iraq now finds himself in immigration limbo, facing deportation to a country he barely remembers after having lived in the United States for 35 years.

A soldier without a country

Jose Barco, 39, who arrived in the United States at age four, is currently detained at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas. Despite his military service and deep roots in American society, Barco—who is not a U.S. citizen—faces removal from the only country he has known since childhood.

“I’m not Venezuelan even though I was born in Venezuela. I’m not Cuban either because I wasn’t born in Cuba, but my parents are Cuban. I’ve lived in this country since I was 4 years old. But to them, I’m not an American. I don’t know what I am,” Barco told The Denver Gazette in March.

His situation has grown increasingly complex after Venezuelan authorities refused to accept him during a deportation attempt in late March, effectively leaving him stateless.

“Jose is virtually stateless at this time, with his country of birth rejecting his admission and the country he shed blood for ordering him removed,” said Anna Stout, former mayor of Grand Junction, Colorado, who is advocating for the Barco family.

Military service and lost citizenship application

Barco joined the U.S. armed forces as a young man and was deployed to western Iraq in 2004, where he experienced combat with insurgent groups and suffered multiple injuries from blasts and collisions. He was later diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to NPR.

In 2006, Barco returned to Iraq after one of his commanding officers, Lieutenant Colonel Michael ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, helped him complete naturalization paperwork. However, the citizenship process was never completed.

“I distinctly remember Jose Barco completing and submitting his application for United States citizenship… At some point, the packet was lost, and we have not been able to find a chain of custody document,” Hutchinson wrote in a February 2025 memo to immigration officials.

Barco was honorably discharged from the military in 2008 at age 23, suffering from serious TBI symptoms. He had served in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, and was previously stationed at Fort Carson.

Criminal conviction and detention

Barco’s path to deportation began with a serious criminal incident. On April 25, 2008, he opened fire on a crowd at a house party in Colorado Springs, wounding a 19-year-old pregnant woman in the leg, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

He was convicted of two counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of felony menacing. Initially sentenced to 52 years in prison, his sentence was later reduced to 40 years in 2014. Barco ultimately served 15 years before being released on parole on January 21, 2025.

“He was immediately detained,” said his wife Tia Barco, a U.S. citizen. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers transferred him first to a Colorado detention center before moving him to two different facilities in Texas.

Family separated

Tia Barco revealed that despite being married for 15 years, her husband has never met their 15-year-old daughter outside of prison.

“We had hoped” for a reunion, she said, adding that he had not applied for a green card through marriage “due to his conviction.”

Barco’s family background includes political persecution—his father fled Cuba after being released as a political prisoner.

Uncertain future

After Venezuelan authorities refused Barco’s entry in late March, his deportation status remains unclear. According to Stout, “Deportation plans are nebulous at this time, and Jose and his team have not been given information about what US immigration authorities plan to do about his deportation order, given the fact Venezuelan authorities declined to take him last week.”

She noted that Barco “was the only detained person on the plane that returned to the U.S.”

Supporters have encountered significant challenges in securing legal representation for Barco. “Jose has encountered multiple barriers to retaining an attorney due primarily to the frequent and sudden transfers among ICE/GEO facilities, impeding any attorney’s access to him,” Stout explained.

The case highlights ongoing tensions in U.S. immigration policy regarding non-citizen veterans who have served in the armed forces but later face deportation due to criminal convictions, raising questions about the nation’s obligations to those who have served in uniform.

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