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.
TRUMP TO VETERANS: suckers and losers, whats in it for them?
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.