(COLORADO SPRINGS) — Jose Barco was once in a combat uniform as he served two tours in Iraq for the U.S. Army. Now, Barco sits in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Aurora, and his loved ones are concerned and scared about his future.

“That’s probably one of the scariest things in my life, because you have no idea what’s happening,” said Tia Barco, the wife of Jose Barco.

While serving in the army, Barco tried to apply for U.S. citizenship in 2006, but somehow his papers never made their way through. In January, Barco was released from prison after serving 15 years for an attempted murder charge back in 2009.

Courtesy: Danizta James

After being released from the Colorado State Penitentiary, Barco was immediately taken by ICE and sent up to Aurora. From there, Barco has been on the move from one facility to another.

The U.S. government attempted to put him on a flight back to Venezuela, since Barco has a Venezuelan birth certificate. Tia Barco tells FOX21 that her husband’s ties to Venezuela come from Barco’s parents fleeing to the country from Cuba.

Barco was not taken in by the Venezuelan government and was sent instead to Honduras before being sent back to the U.S. and ending up in Aurora once again. Through the whole process of being transported to different countries, Tia Barco said she was in the dark the whole time.

“I didn’t know for almost 18 hours that he had been rejected when he got back to Arlington, he was put in a holding cell and they didn’t allow him to contact anyone for 12 hours,” Tia Barco said.

Barco’s story has been gaining attention across Colorado, including from Anna Stout, a City Council member in Grand Junction. Once she learned of his story, Stout reached out to various contacts on LinkedIn to get in touch with the family and help in any way possible.

“It just broke me to understand that we have somebody in our country, who fought for our country, who bled for our country, and is now facing removal,” Stout said.

When it comes to undocumented immigrants convicted of a crime, the Trump Administration has argued that those immigrants should be deported.

“We’re going to continue to arrest Public Safety threats, and national security threats will continue to be deported from the United States,” said Border Czar Tom Homan in an interview on ABC’s This Week.

Since Barco does not have U.S. citizenship, Tia, Anna, and a team of lawyers are working to get him out by looking at any path possible, but Stout tells FOX21 News it does not look promising.

“There’s not even a real clear path at this point because this is an unprecedented situation to have a U.S. veteran who was injured fighting for our country,” Stout said.

Another complicating factor in Barco’s situation is his attempted murder conviction, barring him from obtaining U.S. citizenship. Barco would have to be pardoned by the governor in order to re-apply for citizenship.

For the moment, Tia Barco and the rest of the family are doing what they can to ease Barco’s mind, as they fight to get him out of custody and into the treatment he needs for PTSD.

“It’s really hard to give someone encouragement that’s mentally broken and exhausted,” Tia Barco said.