Latest news with #MarlonParris
Daily Mail
10-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Why Trump is now deporting Iraq War veteran with American father who held green card for years
An Iraq war veteran who has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years could be deported in a matter of months because he's a former drug kingpin. Marlon Parris, who has been in ICE custody since January, was born in Trinidad and Tobago before he was brought to the US in 1997 as a child by his father, who is a naturalized US citizen. After Parris served two tours in Iraq, he got involved in an elaborate cross-country cocaine smuggling scheme. He and 13 other defendants were charged with using private jets to transport huge amounts of cocaine from the Los Angeles area to Baltimore, Maryland. Parris and another man would travel on chartered flights with the cocaine, deliver it to distributors in Baltimore and then return to Los Angeles with the money from the drug deals, according to court records. Parris pleaded guilty and served nearly six years in federal prison. He was let out in January 2017 on supervised release. At this time he had a green card, which he renewed in 2007 and 2017, according to AZCentral. As part of his release back into society, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sent him a letter informing him that the government would not deport him over his conviction. The first hiccup in his legal status came in 2023, when his green card was taken away from him by US Customs officials after he took a vacation and reentered the country with his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, an American citizen. It is unclear if the removal of Parris' green card was related to his prior drug offenses. He was working with an immigration attorney to try to get the document back when he was arrested by ICE on January 22, two days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated. ICE agents took him into custody near his home in Laveen and transported him to Florence Correctional Center, where he has remained for over four months. At a May 9 hearing at the Florence Immigration Court, Judge Frank Travieso said he was sympathetic to Parris' case but ruled that the government had enough evidence to deport him. Parris' attorney, Douglas Kouffie, filed motions objecting to the government's evidence, arguing it had lacked the proper certifications and had been submitted late. Kouffie also brought up the legal doctrine of equitable estoppel, essentially claiming that Parris had been treated unfairly by the federal government after it explicitly told him he could stay in the country. Travieso said that as an immigration judge, he did not have the power to act on the equitable estoppel argument, instead implying that Parris should pursue alternative legal means outside of immigration court. The next court date is August 11, where Parris will be allowed to submit evidence arguing against his deportation, while the government will make the case for his removal. Hartwell-Parris told AZCentral that she'll continue fighting for her husband to stay in the country. She also said his hair has grown much grayer in the months of detention he's faced. In an interview with CNN, Hartwell-Parris said that twice a week, she gets up at 4am and drives to the detention center to visit him. That's as often as she's allowed to see him, and even when she does see him, they are separated by glass and must communicate by phone. 'It's been hard, for sure, to have to even adjust to life without him here,' she said. 'But I just, I try to thank God for just the little time that I am able to see him those two times a week.' It's not entirely clear why ICE has zeroed in on Parris, but Trump did say on the campaign trail that he would make deporting criminals a priority. Parris was convicted for his role in a drug ring that was broken up by law enforcement nearly 15 years ago. He finished serving his time in prison for that crime over eight years ago. According to the indictment, Parris flew on a private jet from Los Angeles to Baltimore with 118 kilograms of cocaine on October 1, 2010. That cocaine was delivered to three separate buyers. In a separate incident on October 7, 2010, Parris was traveling with $240,060 in cash in a suitcase. When police at Phoenix International Airport stopped him, he claimed the money was going to be used to buy himself 'an Aston Martin sports car,' according to the federal indictment. Incredibly, Parris was let go, but police seized the money. Every member of the criminal conspiracy was charged about a month later.
CNN
03-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
DHS said in 2016 it was not moving to deport a convicted Army vet. He's spent most of Trump's new term in ICE custody
After his two deployments to Iraq and despite falling into legal trouble, Marlon Parris learned the US government was not pursuing deportation proceedings against him. The letter had been a welcome assurance some six months before President Donald Trump's 2016 election that the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau didn't intend to send the US Army veteran back to his native Trinidad and Tobago, even after he pleaded guilty and served prison time for felony conspiracy to distribute cocaine as part of a sophisticated, big-money cocaine ring. Since Parris had come to the US as a child in 1997, he had been a lawful permanent resident. As a soldier, he sought full citizenship, a benefit military recruiters often tout to entice foreigners. But his deployments, his wife told CNN, prevented him from seeing the process through, another common obstacle noncitizen service members face. During his years in the Army, Parris was among the first teams sent overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom, then returned to Iraq two years later, according to his wife and military records. He earned awards, including a service medal for the global war on terrorism and one for good conduct. Parris, who has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, figured immigration officials' letter in 2016 – and his green card renewal the following year – meant he 'was given full clearance to basically live life as normal,' said his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, an American citizen. But two days after Trump retook the White House this year on promises of tightening America's borders and expelling violent criminals, Parris found himself at a red light in his Arizona neighborhood, surrounded by unmarked SUVs. It was the feds. Parris, now 45, called his wife. 'ICE is about to detain me,' he told her, she recalled in February to CNN's Victor Blackwell. Now, more than two months later, the couple is still waiting to understand why an agency that had explicitly stated it was not pursuing deportation proceedings against Parris still has him in custody and is trying to remove him from the country he served on the battlefield – a circumstance scores of veterans reportedly have faced in recent years. The documents ICE has provided in support of Parris' deportation stem from the 2011 federal drug case, his wife told CNN: Parris was charged along with at least 13 others as part of a trafficking scheme that ferried cocaine cross-country on private jets and returned with huge sums of cash, court records show. After he served his time in the case, Parris learned of DHS' and ICE's letter of no interest to the detention center holding him, saying the government was lifting his detainer and was not moving to deport him. 'After further review, DHS has determined that he/she is not amenable to deportation or exclusion proceedings,' the letter read. Now, his wife told CNN, it seems Parris has been swept up in the new Republican administration's immigration crackdown, which also has targeted academics at elite universities, alleged gang members and ordinary parents of US citizens. 'We still don't know how he got caught up in this' after several years of thinking he was in the clear, Hartwell-Parris said. 'There's still nothing that they're presenting that would make sense.' DHS did not respond to CNN's requests for comment about Parris' detainment. The department's ICE division told CNN in February it couldn't share information about the case, saying there was no signed privacy waiver on file. 'My goal is to arrest as many public safety and national security threats as possible and move on to the other priorities,' White House border czar Tom Homan said in January. 'We're prioritizing criminal aliens.' But Parris and military veterans, Hartwell-Parris said, 'are not the people who you're hearing about on TV. These are not murderers and rapists, everything that's being said about immigrants.' 'It's no secret that veterans get in trouble with the law,' Navy veteran Alex Murillo, who also has faced deportation, told CNN. 'What the difference is with us is after we serve our time, after we pay our debt to society, then we get exiled. We never get to see our family again.' Military service is one way immigrants can be naturalized under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Eligible service members can apply through the standard form, with some requirements waived, and many military installations offer a liaison to help with the process, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Applicants still need to meet requirements, such as having good moral character and being a lawful permanent resident at the time of their naturalization interview. But there's a difference between being eligible for the benefit and actually receiving it, said Danitza James, who chairs a subcommittee on deported veterans for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Hispanic civil rights group. Military recruiters tell noncitizens they can apply for naturalization and get their citizenship by serving. But, James said, 'that is it.' 'There is nothing that is signed. It's not in our military orders; it's not in our contract. There is nothing abiding the military to deliver on that promise, and that's where the challenges begin,' she said. James went through the process herself: She was 16 when she came to the United States from Mexico and, as a green card holder, did two combat tours in Iraq, she said. She tried to get her citizenship through her military service, but she kept missing immigration appointments and naturalization ceremonies because of redeployments. 'The mission always takes priority,' James said. That's much like what happened to Parris, his wife said – and to others, like Murillo. When the jet mechanic was on active duty in Israel in the early 2000s, his father called from the United States to tell him he had a citizenship interview coming up, he said. 'Dad, I'm serving overseas,' Murillo recalled replying. 'I'm with my squadron. My command is going to take care of that.' 'Yeah, and they never did,' he told CNN. 'They never did.' Murillo later went to prison on a nonviolent cannabis change, he said, and soon after he'd done his time, the Democratic Obama administration deported him in late 2011 to Mexico, where he hadn't been since he was a baby. He spoke no Spanish. Scores of veterans have been held in ICE detention or faced deportation proceedings, a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found. But the exact number isn't clear, it said, and ICE itself fails to keep track. At least 239 deported US veterans live across 34 countries, according to the nonprofit National Immigration Forum, which also counts about 94,000 immigrant veterans who aren't naturalized. And while ICE has special policies for handling veterans' cases – requiring extra layers of documentation and management approval – it doesn't consistently adhere to them, nor does it keep complete data on veterans who are in removal proceedings or deported, the report concluded. ICE 'does not know exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed, or if their cases have been handled according to ICE's policies,' the report stated. The GAO also found some veterans were removed who may not have received the level of review and approval ICE's own policies deem appropriate. DHS at the time said it concurred with the GAO's recommendations that it consistently implement its own policies and maintain data on veterans and would take action to address them, the GAO report states. 'The Department is pleased to note GAO's acknowledgement that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recognizes noncitizen veterans warrant special consideration in the event that they become subject to immigration enforcement and removal from the United States,' the agency's response to the report reads. DHS 'and ICE are focused on smart and effective enforcement of US immigration laws.' The agency did not respond to CNN for this story about whether it has addressed the report's recommendations. For veterans who get deported, trying to return to the US often isn't the only challenge. Hector Barajas was honorably discharged in 2001 from the US Army but struggled to adjust to civilian life, he said, and soon pleaded guilty to illegally discharging a firearm and spent two years in prison. He then was deported and lived the next 14 years in Mexico while working to secure US citizenship. For much of his time in Tijuana, Barajas also ran the Deported Veterans Support House, or 'The Bunker.' Barajas is the first known deported veteran to be naturalized as a US citizen, the American Civil Liberties Union has said. But even after he was welcomed back to the United States in 2018, Barajas struggled to find housing. For a while, he slept in his car in a parking lot, he told CNN. He eventually found a job as a security guard, but his applications for rental housing still got denied because he had no credit history. 'For some of us, the nightmare really isn't over,' he said, 'but it's just nice to be home.' Murillo, the Navy veteran, spent 11 years in Mexico after his deportation. Then in 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden signed an executive order establishing a program that identifies current and former military members and their relatives who were deported to ensure they receive service benefits. Since then, a coalition of nonprofits, advocates and attorneys has used the program to bring back to the United States about 140 service members under humanitarian parole, a special immigration status. Murillo was repatriated in April 2022. But since Trump's second inauguration, the progress of some applications under Biden's executive order has slowed significantly, and approvals aren't happening as often, said James, who ended up becoming naturalized through marriage. 'The deportations haven't stopped, and there's still veterans being wrapped up in this,' Barajas added. 'Because of Trump's enforcement of immigration, they're really worried about what's going to happen with veterans.' For Murillo, it was shocking and painful to hear Parris' story in the news. In recent weeks, he has gone to rallies in support of the detained Army veteran, met his wife and shared his own deportation experience with her as a means of support. 'The main thing that I want is for him to be back with his family,' Murillo said. 'So, we have to get him out. It's not right for him to be in there again. He already served his time.' Twice a week, Hartwell-Parris wakes up at 4 a.m. and drives 80 minutes to the Florence Correctional Center, in Arizona, where her husband is still detained. That's as often as she can see him in person, and even then, they have to speak by phone and are separated by a thick pane of glass – no contact allowed. 'It's been hard, for sure, to have to even adjust to life without him here,' she said. 'But I just, I try to thank God for just the little time that I am able to see him those two times a week.' Other families' detained loved ones have been sent from Florence to facilities in other states, Hartwell-Parris said. 'So, I'm just blessed that he's not one of them – yet,' she said. Parris had been scheduled to have a hearing in his immigration case on March 24, but it was extended to April 25, his wife said. Until then, he will remain in detainment, his future in the United States uncertain. CNN's Hyan de Freitas, Tonju Francois and Norma Galena contributed to this report.
CNN
03-04-2025
- Politics
- CNN
DHS said in 2016 it was not moving to deport a convicted Army vet. He's spent most of Trump's new term in ICE custody
After his two deployments to Iraq and despite falling into legal trouble, Marlon Parris learned the US government was not pursuing deportation proceedings against him. The letter had been a welcome assurance some six months before President Donald Trump's 2016 election that the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau didn't intend to send the US Army veteran back to his native Trinidad and Tobago, even after he pleaded guilty and served prison time for felony conspiracy to distribute cocaine as part of a sophisticated, big-money cocaine ring. Since Parris had come to the US as a child in 1997, he had been a lawful permanent resident. As a soldier, he sought full citizenship, a benefit military recruiters often tout to entice foreigners. But his deployments, his wife told CNN, prevented him from seeing the process through, another common obstacle noncitizen service members face. During his years in the Army, Parris was among the first teams sent overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom, then returned to Iraq two years later, according to his wife and military records. He earned awards, including a service medal for the global war on terrorism and one for good conduct. Parris, who has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, figured immigration officials' letter in 2016 – and his green card renewal the following year – meant he 'was given full clearance to basically live life as normal,' said his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, an American citizen. But two days after Trump retook the White House this year on promises of tightening America's borders and expelling violent criminals, Parris found himself at a red light in his Arizona neighborhood, surrounded by unmarked SUVs. It was the feds. Parris, now 45, called his wife. 'ICE is about to detain me,' he told her, she recalled in February to CNN's Victor Blackwell. Now, more than two months later, the couple is still waiting to understand why an agency that had explicitly stated it was not pursuing deportation proceedings against Parris still has him in custody and is trying to remove him from the country he served on the battlefield – a circumstance scores of veterans reportedly have faced in recent years. The documents ICE has provided in support of Parris' deportation stem from the 2011 federal drug case, his wife told CNN: Parris was charged along with at least 13 others as part of a trafficking scheme that ferried cocaine cross-country on private jets and returned with huge sums of cash, court records show. After he served his time in the case, Parris learned of DHS' and ICE's letter of no interest to the detention center holding him, saying the government was lifting his detainer and was not moving to deport him. 'After further review, DHS has determined that he/she is not amenable to deportation or exclusion proceedings,' the letter read. Now, his wife told CNN, it seems Parris has been swept up in the new Republican administration's immigration crackdown, which also has targeted academics at elite universities, alleged gang members and ordinary parents of US citizens. 'We still don't know how he got caught up in this' after several years of thinking he was in the clear, Hartwell-Parris said. 'There's still nothing that they're presenting that would make sense.' DHS did not respond to CNN's requests for comment about Parris' detainment. The department's ICE division told CNN in February it couldn't share information about the case, saying there was no signed privacy waiver on file. 'My goal is to arrest as many public safety and national security threats as possible and move on to the other priorities,' White House border czar Tom Homan said in January. 'We're prioritizing criminal aliens.' But Parris and military veterans, Hartwell-Parris said, 'are not the people who you're hearing about on TV. These are not murderers and rapists, everything that's being said about immigrants.' 'It's no secret that veterans get in trouble with the law,' Navy veteran Alex Murillo, who also has faced deportation, told CNN. 'What the difference is with us is after we serve our time, after we pay our debt to society, then we get exiled. We never get to see our family again.' Military service is one way immigrants can be naturalized under the Immigration and Nationality Act. Eligible service members can apply through the standard form, with some requirements waived, and many military installations offer a liaison to help with the process, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Applicants still need to meet requirements, such as having good moral character and being a lawful permanent resident at the time of their naturalization interview. But there's a difference between being eligible for the benefit and actually receiving it, said Danitza James, who chairs a subcommittee on deported veterans for the League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest Hispanic civil rights group. Military recruiters tell noncitizens they can apply for naturalization and get their citizenship by serving. But, James said, 'that is it.' 'There is nothing that is signed. It's not in our military orders; it's not in our contract. There is nothing abiding the military to deliver on that promise, and that's where the challenges begin,' she said. James went through the process herself: She was 16 when she came to the United States from Mexico and, as a green card holder, did two combat tours in Iraq, she said. She tried to get her citizenship through her military service, but she kept missing immigration appointments and naturalization ceremonies because of redeployments. 'The mission always takes priority,' James said. That's much like what happened to Parris, his wife said – and to others, like Murillo. When the jet mechanic was on active duty in Israel in the early 2000s, his father called from the United States to tell him he had a citizenship interview coming up, he said. 'Dad, I'm serving overseas,' Murillo recalled replying. 'I'm with my squadron. My command is going to take care of that.' 'Yeah, and they never did,' he told CNN. 'They never did.' Murillo later went to prison on a nonviolent cannabis change, he said, and soon after he'd done his time, the Democratic Obama administration deported him in late 2011 to Mexico, where he hadn't been since he was a baby. He spoke no Spanish. Scores of veterans have been held in ICE detention or faced deportation proceedings, a 2019 Government Accountability Office report found. But the exact number isn't clear, it said, and ICE itself fails to keep track. At least 239 deported US veterans live across 34 countries, according to the nonprofit National Immigration Forum, which also counts about 94,000 immigrant veterans who aren't naturalized. And while ICE has special policies for handling veterans' cases – requiring extra layers of documentation and management approval – it doesn't consistently adhere to them, nor does it keep complete data on veterans who are in removal proceedings or deported, the report concluded. ICE 'does not know exactly how many veterans have been placed in removal proceedings or removed, or if their cases have been handled according to ICE's policies,' the report stated. The GAO also found some veterans were removed who may not have received the level of review and approval ICE's own policies deem appropriate. DHS at the time said it concurred with the GAO's recommendations that it consistently implement its own policies and maintain data on veterans and would take action to address them, the GAO report states. 'The Department is pleased to note GAO's acknowledgement that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recognizes noncitizen veterans warrant special consideration in the event that they become subject to immigration enforcement and removal from the United States,' the agency's response to the report reads. DHS 'and ICE are focused on smart and effective enforcement of US immigration laws.' The agency did not respond to CNN for this story about whether it has addressed the report's recommendations. For veterans who get deported, trying to return to the US often isn't the only challenge. Hector Barajas was honorably discharged in 2001 from the US Army but struggled to adjust to civilian life, he said, and soon pleaded guilty to illegally discharging a firearm and spent two years in prison. He then was deported and lived the next 14 years in Mexico while working to secure US citizenship. For much of his time in Tijuana, Barajas also ran the Deported Veterans Support House, or 'The Bunker.' Barajas is the first known deported veteran to be naturalized as a US citizen, the American Civil Liberties Union has said. But even after he was welcomed back to the United States in 2018, Barajas struggled to find housing. For a while, he slept in his car in a parking lot, he told CNN. He eventually found a job as a security guard, but his applications for rental housing still got denied because he had no credit history. 'For some of us, the nightmare really isn't over,' he said, 'but it's just nice to be home.' Murillo, the Navy veteran, spent 11 years in Mexico after his deportation. Then in 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden signed an executive order establishing a program that identifies current and former military members and their relatives who were deported to ensure they receive service benefits. Since then, a coalition of nonprofits, advocates and attorneys has used the program to bring back to the United States about 140 service members under humanitarian parole, a special immigration status. Murillo was repatriated in April 2022. But since Trump's second inauguration, the progress of some applications under Biden's executive order has slowed significantly, and approvals aren't happening as often, said James, who ended up becoming naturalized through marriage. 'The deportations haven't stopped, and there's still veterans being wrapped up in this,' Barajas added. 'Because of Trump's enforcement of immigration, they're really worried about what's going to happen with veterans.' For Murillo, it was shocking and painful to hear Parris' story in the news. In recent weeks, he has gone to rallies in support of the detained Army veteran, met his wife and shared his own deportation experience with her as a means of support. 'The main thing that I want is for him to be back with his family,' Murillo said. 'So, we have to get him out. It's not right for him to be in there again. He already served his time.' Twice a week, Hartwell-Parris wakes up at 4 a.m. and drives 80 minutes to the Florence Correctional Center, in Arizona, where her husband is still detained. That's as often as she can see him in person, and even then, they have to speak by phone and are separated by a thick pane of glass – no contact allowed. 'It's been hard, for sure, to have to even adjust to life without him here,' she said. 'But I just, I try to thank God for just the little time that I am able to see him those two times a week.' Other families' detained loved ones have been sent from Florence to facilities in other states, Hartwell-Parris said. 'So, I'm just blessed that he's not one of them – yet,' she said. Parris had been scheduled to have a hearing in his immigration case on March 24, but it was extended to April 25, his wife said. Until then, he will remain in detainment, his future in the United States uncertain. CNN's Hyan de Freitas, Tonju Francois and Norma Galena contributed to this report.
USA Today
12-02-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Veterans group calls for release of Phoenix Army vet by immigration agents
Veterans group calls for release of Phoenix Army vet by immigration agents Show Caption Hide Caption 'I have to be his voice': Wife of US veteran detained by ICE speaks Tanisha Hartwell-Parris of Phoenix talks about her husband being detained by ICE. Marlon Parris is a military veteran but had a criminal conviction. Marlon Parris, an Iraq War veteran, is facing deportation after being detained by ICE despite legally residing in the U.S. for over 20 years. Common Defense, a veterans' organization, has launched a petition and is urging the government to protection veterans from deportation. A national veterans group is calling for the release of an Iraq War veteran who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement outside his Laveen neighborhood. Marlon Parris faces deportation after ICE agents detained him on Jan. 22 while he was driving to an ATM. He is being held at a private prison facility in Florence in ICE custody. Parris had been in the country legally for more than 20 years and served three deployments in the Army. He and his wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, believe he was targeted as part of President Donald Trump's increased immigration enforcement efforts, which include a focus on people convicted of crimes. Parris, in 2011, pled guilty to a nonviolent felony drug charge and served five years in prison. Before he was released, ICE agents visited Parris in prison, telling him that due to his service to the country and the nonviolent nature of his conviction, they would not seek to deport him. Upon learning Parris' story, Common Defense, a grassroots veterans advocacy organization, launched a petition calling for his release. "Veterans who have raised their right hand to serve this country, regardless of what we sent them to do, regardless of where they originated from, do not ever deserve to be tossed away," said Jojo Sweatt, a Marine Corps veteran and organizing director for Common Defense. "They deserve citizenship here in the United States, and they deserve to be protected, honored and respected and allocated all the resources that they need based on anything that they've been suffering from because of that commitment and sacrifice to service." Sweatt said Common Defense was calling for the release of Parris from custody and the return of his green card. She also said President Trump should sign an executive order protecting service members from deportation and repatriate any deported veterans. "If this administration really does care about equity in the military and honoring the service of those who make that sacrifice, then they need to all be brought home, and they need to all be given their legal status," she said. Michael Chappell, a U.S. Navy veteran who lives in Tucson, said he believed the Trump administration was unjustly targeting Parris. "When you get home from service, you expect that your government, your country, is going to take care of you," he said. "And this is the farthest thing from that." Chappell now serves as a program director for Veteran Engagement & Trail Stewardship at the Arizona Trial Association, where veterans can take part in trail restoration and engage in therapeutic recovery with their fellow service members. He said veterans face significant challenges when trying to reenter society. "I'm hoping he's able to keep it together because I'm sure this experience has done nothing to help his PTSD," Chapell said. Parris' wife said he has a pending bond hearing, at which point she hopes he can be released on his own recognizance. An online ICE portal shows a hearing scheduled for Parris on Feb. 27 in an immigration court in Florence. Sweatt said Common Defense had contacted political leaders and tried to get them to support Parris' release. She worries that his case is not unique and was encouraging friends and family members of deported veterans to contact Common Defense for assistance. "There's likely more Marlons out there that have been affected," she said.
