A Trinida­di­an-born Iraq war vet­er­an, who legal­ly lived in the Unit­ed States for more than 20 years, is now fac­ing de­por­ta­tion af­ter be­ing de­tained by US Im­mi­gra­tion and Cus­toms En­force­ment (ICE).

Ac­cord­ing to re­ports com­ing out of the Unit­ed States via MSN news and Ari­zona Cen­tral, Mar­lon Par­ris, 44, who served six years in the US Army with three de­ploy­ments to Iraq, was ar­rest­ed on Jan­u­ary 22 near his home in Laveen, Ari­zona, as he made his way to an ATM. He is cur­rent­ly be­ing held at a pri­vate de­ten­tion fa­cil­i­ty in Flo­rence, Ari­zona, while await­ing a Feb­ru­ary 27 im­mi­gra­tion court hear­ing.

The ar­rest has prompt­ed the na­tion­al vet­er­ans' ad­vo­ca­cy group Com­mon De­fence to launch a pe­ti­tion de­mand­ing Par­ris' re­lease, the re­in­state­ment of his green card, and ex­ec­u­tive ac­tion to pro­tect non-cit­i­zen mil­i­tary vet­er­ans.