Venezuelan-born Jose Barco detained upon early release from prison following attempted murder conviction
An army veteran and Purple Heart recipient who served two tours in Iraq was deported on Friday morning from an immigration detention facility in Florence, Arizona.
Arizona state representative Raquel Terán told Fox 10 Phoenix that Jose Barco, a Venezuelan-born veteran whose family fled Cuba as refugees, was deported at 4am from Arizona.
Anna Stout, a volunteer on Barco’s defense team, told Denver 7 his team was not notified of plans for his deportation and his family was initially not told of where they would be taking him.
“Jose was not able to reach out to his family before any of this initiated,” she told the news outlet, adding that the process has been “frustrating”.
