It took 17 paragraphs.
Seventeen. One-seven. And that’s 17 paragraphs of a 31-paragraph story. That’s how long it took Newsweek when recounting the sob story of an immigrant who’s being deported to mention the most important detail of why he’s being deported: namely, that he was convicted of attempted murder.
I mean, but other than that …
Jose Barco, a 39-year-old who was born in Venezuela to parents who were Cuban, has been in the United States since he was four. He served in the U.S. Army, was awarded a Purple Heart, and had applied for citizenship while he was serving; according to PBS, Barco’s commanding officer said his application “should have been approved by the end of calendar year 2006” but “the packet was lost, and we have not been able to find a chain of custody document.”
Then came the events of 2008 and 2009; in April 2008, Barco apparently opened fire on a house party in Colorado Springs. In 2009, a jury found him guilty of attempted murder for hitting a 19-year-old pregnant woman in the leg. Initially sentenced to 52 years behind bars, he got off in 15 for good behavior.
However, when he was released in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody and sought to deport him to Venezuela.
Most of the media, to the extent that they covered it, covered it as a sob story — Barco has no support system in either Venezuela or Cuba, after all, and he has a wife and a 15-year-old daughter — but bearing in mind what Barco had done. PBS’ headline: “He served his country, then he served time. Where does Jose Barco go now?” The Denver Gazette: “Deported former Army soldier returned to Colorado after Venezuela refused to take him.”
Newsweek, however, rather took the cake on this April 6 report on the matter: “Veteran Who Has Been in US Since He Was 4 Years Old Faces Deportation.”
Should Barco be deported or given residency due to his Purple Heart?
The first two grafs:
Jose Barco, a U.S. Army veteran awarded a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq, is currently being held in a Texas detention center awaiting deportation after having lived in the United States for 35 years.
Barco, who is not a U.S. citizen but has served in the military, has a criminal record, having just completed his 15-year prison sentence the day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
OK, then — for what? It doesn’t say, noting that former Grand Junction, Colorado, Mayor Anna Stout, who is assisting his family, said that Barco “is virtually stateless at this time, with his country of birth rejecting his admission and the country he shed blood for ordering him removed.”
So we know he served a prison sentence, which wasn’t mentioned in the headline, but for what? Again, we’re dragged through an explainer on “Why It Matters” (“Although the administration says it is prioritizing individuals with criminal records or gang affiliations, some legal residents and non-criminal immigrants have also been detained and deported. … Mental illness is common among veterans and military personnel. A 2017 Rand Corporation analysis found that out of the 2.8 million service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, between 13 and 20 percent experience posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 19 to 23 percent have a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and 44 percent have difficulty adjusting to civilian life”) and then an explainer about Barco — but not the crime he committed.
First, the fact that his dad fled to Venezuela from Cuba and then came to the United States when Barco was four. He had a wife and a daughter, joined the U.S. Army when he was younger, got deployed to Iraq in 2004, was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury later on, applied for citizenship, didn’t get it.
We go through three paragraphs about his citizenship struggle with his commanding officer, a paragraph about his discharge in 2008 “with serious TBI symptoms,” the regiment he served in, the fact it was featured in a PBS documentary, where he was stationed, pretty much everything but the guy’s favorite color.
And then, 17th and 18th paragraphs:
On April 25, 2008, Barco opened fire on a house party crowd in Colorado Springs, striking a 19-year-old, who was five months pregnant at the time, 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 and was sentenced to 52 years in prison. His sentence was later reduced to 40 years in 2014.
Barco served 15 years in prison in Colorado, Tia told Newsweek. She said he first served at Buena Vista Correctional Complex and then the last five years in “an incentive program at CSP Colorado State Prison [Penitentiary].”
Well, that’s quite the detail to bury, now, isn’t it?
Please don’t get me wrong, I don’t intend to insinuate that Barco doesn’t present an ethical quandary. Individuals who serve in the military generally get citizenship if they apply, which Barco did; for whatever reason, his application was lost, and the insinuation is that the man wasn’t mentally well enough to follow up on it on his own with his TBI. This does present an issue outside of the norm when it comes to individuals being deported for felony convictions.
However, it’s critical to note that he’s still being deported for a felony conviction for attempted murder and that he is, for whatever reason, not an American citizen — with that first italicized detail being shouted from rooftops no matter what your outlet is.
Yes, I get it, Newsweek mentioned up front that he served 15 years in the slammer, which indicates something serious. You don’t get a decade and a half behind bars for unpaid parking tickets or a DUI. However, to not mention why he was behind bars and then to slip it in almost a dozen-and-a-half paragraphs into the story, almost in a mumble, is editorial malfeasance.
You want an honest headline? Here, here you go, Newsweek: “Vet in U.S. Since 4 but Convicted of Attempting to Murder Pregnant Woman Faces Deportation.” Use it free of charge. It’s a gift! Really!
Alas, I don’t think that’s the point: They meant for you to come away uninformed about the Barco case, front-loading all of the exculpatory details — family, military service, TBI, etc. — and then saying out of the sides of their mouths, in sotto voce, “oh yeah, and he also shot a random pregnant woman. There is that. Anywho! So Trump’s immigration policies are …”
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
