The 'curse' of veterans caught in the US deportation machinery -- EL PAIS

[erronis]

Last edited Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:52 PM - Edit history (1)

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-10-25/the-curse-of-veterans-caught-in-the-us-deportation-machinery.html

More than 100,000 former members of the armed forces do not have American citizenship and are at risk of being removed from the country

Why does anyone trust this regime - inside or outside of the US?

After 15 years behind bars, Sergeant Jose Barco — a decorated veteran wounded in the Iraq War — was released from prison on the second day of Donald Trump’s second presidency. His freedom, however, lasted only a few moments. Outside, immigration agents were waiting for him. Since then, he has been held in detention centers, counting down the days to a deportation that now represents both a relief and the latest misfortune in a list that has only grown longer since he joined the U.S. army at 17. His wife, Tia Barco, has only one explanation: it must be a “curse.”

The sergeant, who celebrated his 40th birthday in silence a few weeks ago in a cell among dozens of undocumented inmates, has in fact never known full freedom in his adult life. Born in Venezuela to Cuban parents who fled the Castro regime, he moved to Miami at the age of four, where he grew up as a legal resident thanks to his parents’ refugee status. As a teenager, he enlisted and completed two tours in Iraq. A few years after returning home, he got into a fight during a night out that ended in gunfire. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison for attempted murder. He served more than a decade of that sentence as a model inmate before being granted parole — only to be immediately detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The veteran who committed no crime

In some cases, no crime has even been committed. That’s what Melissa Chaudhry, wife of Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, 52, a veteran in a wheelchair who has been detained by ICE in Washington State since late August, denounces. His story begins in the 1990s, when he emigrated from his native Pakistan to Australia. There, he studied computer science and worked as a taxi driver. In that job, he suffered abuse and racist attacks, but what would stay with him was a conviction for allegedly stealing a passport and a credit card that passengers had left in his car.

In the late 1990s, he moved to the United States, and in 2001, he received his permanent resident status. Already married to his first wife, he joined the National Guard, where he distinguished himself as a mental health specialist. Then the September 11 attacks occurred, and he was called up for regular duty. “No one saw that coming and here he is, a brown man named Muhammad with an accent, in the U.S. army. As you can imagine, the tone shifted considerably,” says Melissa during a video call from her car, accompanied by their two youngest children, both under two, in the midst of the legal proceedings that now fill her daily life.

(A request that DU fix its HTML encoding for the 'title' field. It is too strict - perhaps using URLEncode instead of HTMLEncode.)

[Skittles]

1. and all because Cadet Fucking Bonespurs the coward is a fucking RACIST POS

yes INDEED