18-05-2025
Joe Exotic's husband is DEPORTED to Mexico after release from prison... one month after wedding
Joe Exotic 's worst fear came true when his husband Jorge Flores Maldonado was picked up by ICE upon his release from prison.
Joe - real name Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage - posted a photo on Instagram with his husband on Saturday.
'They have officially taken him to an ICE detention Center for his hearing to either stay in America or go back to Mexico.'
Maldonado was deported to Mexico just hours after the immigration hearing, TMZ confirmed Sunday.
Jorge was serving time for immigration-related issues while Joe is behind bars for 21 years for his alleged involvement in attempting to have his rival Carole Baskin killed.
Exotic rose to fame from the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness that followed his life as he looked after exotic big cats at his G.W. Zoo in Oklahoma.
Joe's big mistake was offering $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin.
was imprisoned in 2024 for 'unlawfully reentering the US from Mexico after previously being deported' per The Sun.
In October, after announcing their engagement, Exotic said he was working on 'getting asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out.'
He doubled down on that claim in answering a comment on social media wishing him luck in his appeal.
Exotic wrote that he has 'no problem going to Mexico' with his husband when released.
That might not be as easy as Exotic thinks it is with his felony conviction. Mexico can deny entry to felons with dangerous convictions such as attempted murder.
On Saturday, Joe shared a photo of his husband on Instagram and included a long and heartfelt message and hope that they can be together again someday.
'You know, I could die tomorrow, and I could go knowing what true love was really all about,' Joe began. 'Jorge gave me the most loving and devoted 10 months of my life. I pray God will give me the chance to experience life with him again.'
He went on to say when he went outside, prisoners came up to him to check on how he was 'holding up since he left.'
'You know, they all respected us because we weren't the typical gay people just causing drama and bed-hopping. They saw that we were real and serious about our devotion to each other, which is amazing that some of the worst of the worst society has to offer saw that in us.'
Joe then went on to throw his hope behind a Presidential pardon from Donald Trump.
'We need to get some serious campaigns going to get Trump to let me go. No matter where I am, I'm fine with Mexico or America, as long as I spend my last days with Jorge.
'Pray that we make it back together one day. I am falsely incarcerated in my own country I don't belong here I pray President Trump signs my pardon soon.'
Joe shocked fans last month when he announced he'd married a fellow prisoner.
Speaking to Sydney, Austrailia's 2DayFM's Jimmy & Nath Show, Joe revealed whether the couple had consummated the marriage.
Sharing a photoshopped snap of the couple wearing suits for the big day, he quipped: 'Never been more proud of someone. Meet my husband Jorge Flores Maldonado.'
Joe shared the news of their engagement back in October, as he told fans: 'Meet Jorge Marquez. He is so amazing and is from Mexico.'
He added: 'Now, the quest of getting married in prison and getting him asylum or we be leaving America when we both get out.
'Either way, I wish I would have met him long ago.'
Joe, also known Joseph Maldonado-Passage, submitted a marriage application to the federal prison to wed Jorge.
