Deported Service: The Unjust ICE Detention of a Black Iraq War Veteran

Service, Sacrifice and Betrayal: One Black Veteran’s Battle Against Deportation

May 14, 2025

PHOENIX — On the morning of January 22, 45-year-old Marlon Parris stepped out of his Laveen home for a quick trip to the ATM—and never made it back. Two unmarked SUVs surrounded his car at the first stoplight. “ICE is detaining me,” he told his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, over the phone. Fifteen minutes later, he was locked in a cell at the Florence ICE detention center, despite holding a “Letter of No Interest” promising that his military service would spare him deportation .

Parris, a Trinidad-and-Tobago native who arrived in the U.S. in 1997, enlisted in the Army within months of the 9/11 attacks. He served two combat tours in Iraq, earned commendations, and returned home bearing the wounds of PTSD and traumatic brain injury. In 2011, after a nonviolent drug conviction and five years in federal prison, he received a formal ICE assurance: no deportation on account of his service. Yet, two days after Donald J. Trump’s second inauguration, that guarantee vanished.

A “Get-Out-of-Jail” Promise Revoked

“That Letter of No Interest is like a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said James Smith II, founder of Black Deported Veterans of America. “ICE issued it under the Obama administration—and now, Trump 2.0 is trying to take it back.” (CBS News)

Under Trump’s new immigration directives, ICE revoked Parris’s letter and began detaining long-standing lawful residents for past convictions—many of them veterans (namvetsamerica.org). In fiscal year 2024, ICE deported a ten-year high of 271,484 noncitizens, including hundreds of service members and legal permanent residents with minor or distant convictions . Since the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, at least 94,000 U.S. military veterans have been deported .

Black Army Vet FOUGHT for America—Now Trump’s ICE Wants Him DEPORTED?!

The Human Toll

“Two days after Trump took office—it was a normal morning,” Tanisha Hartwell-Parris recalled on Roland Martin Unfiltered. “Marlon needed cash for household repairs; next thing I know, he’s on a list I don’t even know the name of” .

Her husband, once lauded by commanders for bravery under fire, now sleeps on a bunk behind razor wire. Their blended family—two young children and Tanisha’s elderly mother—scrambles to make ends meet without him. A GoFundMe page launched by veteran-rights groups has raised just $1,661 toward a $15,000 goal to cover legal and living expenses (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

Elected Allies—and Silence

In Illinois, Senator Tammy Duckworth has pressed ICE for Parris’s release, writing to detention officials that “his military service and rehabilitation demand better treatment” (National Immigration Forum). Closer to home, however, Parris’s Arizona representatives have been conspicuously absent. Congressman Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) co-authored the Repatriate Our Patriots Act to protect veteran residents, yet his office declined to petition the courts on Parris’s behalf (Newsweek). “Getting more help from an Illinois senator than from my own two U.S. senators—that’s absurd,” Hartwell-Parris told Roland Martin Unfiltered (KJZZ).

Military Service and Moral Obligation

Parris isn’t alone. Several immigrant veterans—from Haiti, Africa and beyond—now fear detention and deportation despite service medals. “This isn’t just policy; it’s a moral failure,” said Tanisha’s brother-in-law, Navy veteran Michael Hartwell. “We give our lives for this country—why won’t it keep its word?”

A Department of Homeland Security internal review shows ICE’s Removal and Deportation Operations increased by 69 percent in Q3 of FY 2024 compared to the prior year, forcing agents to rely on military-style raids in suburban neighborhoods (CBS News). In some counties, local law enforcement has even signed on under Section 287(g) agreements, deputizing officers to arrest legal residents for federal immigration offenses.

Legal Battle Ahead

On May 9, Parris appeared before Judge Frank Travieso in Phoenix immigration court. The judge ruled that Parris is removable—and that government evidence, including the original ICE file, is admissible. Attorney Douglas Koufee vowed to appeal, arguing the evidence was late-filed and improperly introduced (National Immigration Forum). Parris’s next merits hearing is set for August 11.

Meanwhile, veteran-advocacy organizations, including Common Defense and the VFW, have filed amicus briefs urging the administration to honor the 2016 assurance and restore Parris’s green card.

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A National Security Concern

Human-rights experts warn that deporting decorated veterans undermines U.S. credibility abroad—and sows distrust at home. “If you can’t trust the government to honor its assurances,” said Nola Martinez of the Migration Policy Institute, “why would anyone serve under its flag?”

In 2025’s first four months, ICE removed over 12,300 individuals interior to the U.S.—surpassing the pace of the previous administration’s early months—despite no increase in violent-crime rates among legal residents (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

A Veteran’s Plea

“I did everything right,” Parris said through his attorney at a February rally, clutching the VFW challenge coin embossed with “Thou Shalt Not Deport Veterans.” “Now I face deportation for wearing this uniform.”

As the Trump administration vows a “million removals” campaign this year, Marlon Parris’s name stands as a stark warning: patriotic service offers no immunity when politics override principle.

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