Joe Exotic's new husband, Jorge Flores Maldonado, has been deported to Mexico just weeks after their prison wedding, prompting the Tiger King star to appeal directly to Donald Trump for help.
Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, rose to global fame with the 2020 Netflix series Tiger King, which chronicled his life at a private zoo in Oklahoma and his feud with animal activist Carole Baskin.
Exotic is currently serving a 21-year federal sentence for attempting to hire a hitman to kill Baskin and violating wildlife laws. While behind bars, he married Jorge Maldonado, a Mexican national who was incarcerated for immigration-related offenses, including transporting undocumented immigrants across the U.S. border.
Maldonado was deported just hours after an immigration court hearing last week, the New York Post reported. The couple had wed only weeks earlier while both were in federal custody in Texas.
On Saturday, Exotic posted on Instagram about his husband being taken to an ICE detention center, calling on President Trump and administration officials to intervene. He also shared an illustration his husband left behind before being deported, along with emotional pleas that he has "suffered enough."
With Maldonado now in Mexico and Exotic still imprisoned, the couple remains separated. Exotic has stated publicly that he would be willing to relocate to Mexico with his husband if granted release.
ICE has not yet responded to media inquiries about the deportation. Exotic continues to appeal his conviction and has tied his legal battle to public calls for political intervention.
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