An Iraq War vet is facing deportation. This veterans' group is demanding his release.
Marlon Parris just wanted to stop by the ATM. The Iraq war veteran had left his home in Laveen, Arizona, on the morning of Jan. 22 when he was swarmed by a half-dozen black SUVs.
Officers with vests reading ICE – the initials of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – jumped out of the vehicles and soon whisked him to a private prison facility, where he faces deportation.
Now a national veterans’ group is demanding Parris’ release, the return of his green card and a pledge from President Donald Trump to protect service members from deportation and to repatriate deported veterans.
"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, organizing director for Common Defense, a grassroots veterans advocacy organization.
ICE did not respond to several requests for comment about Parris’ arrest or why he was targeted.
Parris’ wife, Tanisha Hartwell-Parris, believes her husband’s arrest is a product of Trump's heightened immigration enforcement measures. The couple have seven children in a blended family.
So does Michael Chappell of Tucson, a U.S. Navy veteran who believes the administration has unjustly targeted 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."
'He's on a list'
Parris came to the U.S. in 1997 from Trinidad and Tobago, the son of a naturalized citizen. He joined the Army in 2001 and served for six years, thrice deployed to Iraq.
He was discharged in 2007, diagnosed with PTSD and brain trauma – the product of time spent in armored tanks, according to Veterans Affairs doctors. According to his wife, he suffers from brain hemorrhages and high blood pressure.
Parris had called his wife as his detention unfurled, and by the time she drove to the scene he was in custody.
Why was he being detained? She asked.
"They just said, 'He's on a list,’” she said. “’We have orders, and he's on a list.’”
Hartwell-Parris fears her husband has been caught up in Trump’s show of force on immigration, which includes attention on those convicted of crimes. Parris served five years in prison after pleading guilty to a nonviolent felony drug charge in 2011.
ICE agents had visited Parris before his release in 2016, assuring him he would not be deported because of his military service and the nonviolent nature of his offense. They gave him a letter saying so and told him to keep it on him at all times.
Hartwell-Parris said they were able to travel without issue outside of the U.S. several times in 2022 and 2023. But in October 2023, the couple flew into Miami from Barbados via the Miami airport when customs personnel allowed Parris to enter the U.S. but confiscated the green card that he had renewed in 2017.
Parris had been consulting an immigration attorney in an attempt to have it returned when ICE agents picked him up.
He now faces an immigration court hearing on Feb. 27.
Advocates fear more veterans may face similar issues
Common Defense has started a petition demanding Parris’ release and lobbied political leaders asking for support.
"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," Sweatt said.
She fears Parris’ situation may hint at others.
"There's likely more Marlons out there that have been affected," she said.
The timing of the arrest, two days after Trump took office, gives Hartwell-Parris pause.
“Why now?” she wondered. “We were taking care of the green card issue. His driver's license is current. We have all his documentation. Nothing has changed other than the president.”
She said she and her husband had gathered their children the day after Trump was elected to warn them of the risks of Parris’ predicament.
“This is just not what this country should stand for,” Hartwell-Parris said. “He is here legally, and this is where he belongs.”