JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Let's hear about a man named Jose Barco. He is a decorated combat veteran who came to the U.S. with his parents as a 4-year-old. He now faces deportation to his home country of Venezuela after serving a prison sentence for a serious crime. NPR's Tom Bowman joins us with his story. Hi, Tom.
TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Tom, let's start with his military history. Tell us what happened.
BOWMAN: Well, Jose Barco enlists in the Army at 17. He's sent to Iraq in 2004. His unit was hit with this suicide car bomb. He's slammed against the wall but is still able to save two soldiers under this flaming vehicle. So he was treated for burns but not for his traumatic brain injury. This was at a time, Juana, when the military really didn't understand the effects of TBI. He eventually did get some help - basically medication, but no real treatment. And he was - he convinced doctors - get this - to send him back to Iraq for a second tour, where he suffers more concussions and also more PTSD because of heavy combat.
SUMMERS: So Tom, Barco served in the U.S. Army, so shouldn't he have been eligible to become a citizen?
BOWMAN: You know he - right, and many do. Jose filled out the paperwork for citizenship in 2006 - his platoon leader remembers that - but the paperwork somehow got lost. And to this day, they don't even know where it is. They assumed he was a citizen.
SUMMERS: So how does this end up with a serious crime?
BOWMAN: Well, he gets an honorable discharge in 2008, again, suffering from brain injury and PTSD. He returns to Colorado, where his unit's from, and ends up at this house party. He pulls out a gun and shoots into a ceiling. They throw him out of the party. And then he drives past the party, pulls out a gun and shoots into a crowd, striking a young pregnant woman and gives her a serious leg injury. He ends up getting 52 years in prison, but is released after serving just 15 years because he was a model prisoner teaching English and math in prison. He walks out of the prison on January 21 of this year.
SUMMERS: Which, if I'm remembering correctly, that's the day after President Trump was inaugurated, right?
BOWMAN: That's right. And of course, the president has long spoken about getting rid of immigrants who commit crime. So Barco walks out of prison hoping to attend a family reunion in Florida with his mother, his American-born wife, 15-year-old daughter. Instead, he walks into the arms of agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE. He's tossed in a van, goes before an immigration judge who orders him deported back to Venezuela, a country, of course, he hasn't seen since he was 4. Now, he became a lawful, permanent resident after his parents brought him here 35 years ago, but you lose that status if you commit a felony. He was bounced around several ICE detention centers to one, finally, in south Texas.
SUMMERS: Wow, quite the story. Tom, have you talked to Jose Barco directly?
BOWMAN: No, I haven't. I've only spoken to his wife and fellow soldiers. But an advocate for Barco talked to him in detention, and he said, it's just all surreal.
JOSE BARCO: I thought I earned my place in this country. Yes, I committed a horrible crime. I went to prison. I served my time.
SUMMERS: So Tom, after all of that, did he end up being deported back to Venezuela?
BOWMAN: No, he didn't, Juana. And this is where it gets really strange. He was put on a plane just last week with dozens of Venezuelan detainees. Now, there's this way station in Honduras, where they first meet Venezuelan officials. They tell him because of his accent, you're not a Venezuelan. You're Cuban. Which kind of makes sense 'cause both of his parents are originally from Cuba. And they tell him the Venezuelan birth certificate he's carrying must be a forgery. So Barco was sent back to an ICE detention center in south Texas, where he sits today.
SUMMERS: So Tom, what happens now?
BOWMAN: Well, it's uncertain. ICE has not responded to a request for comment from my colleague Quil Lawrence. And Barco's family worries what happens next. And also, I reached out to the family of the woman he shot 15 years ago. They're bitter. They think he should be deported. His advocates say, listen, he's a veteran who served his country, saved his comrades. He doesn't deserve this fate.
SUMMERS: NPR's Tom Bowman. Thank you.
BOWMAN: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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