ICE Detains US Soldier’s Wife At Immigration Appointment

The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained the wife of an active-duty US soldier in El Paso, Texas, in what marked at least the second case involving a military spouse this month.

According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Deisy Rivera Ortega was arrested on April 14 and is currently being held at a detention facility in El Paso.

Rivera Ortega had accompanied her husband, Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano, to an interview under the parole-in-place programme, which allows family members of US military personnel to remain in the country while their immigration status is being processed.

“They just took my wife away,” Serrano told the BBC.

The soldier described the incident as distressing, saying it left him anxious and unsettled.

“I’m searching on the internet how I can help my wife,” he said. “If not, I’m walking in the house back and forth. Or jumping in my car and just driving for four hours.”
In a statement, DHS described Rivera Ortega as a “criminal illegal alien from El Salvador,” noting that she had been convicted of illegally entering the United States.

Her attorney, Matthew James Kozik, however, said Rivera Ortega crossed into the US in 2016 through the Rio Grande Valley and subsequently applied for asylum.

Court documents indicated that in December 2019, an immigration judge ordered her removal to El Salvador but granted her withholding of removal under the Convention Against Torture, citing fears of possible harm if she returned.

The order allowed her to remain legally in the United States.

Under policies introduced during the administration of US President Donald Trump, authorities have pursued “third-country” deportations, which involve removing individuals to countries other than their homeland.

Kozik and Serrano said ICE officials have indicated that Rivera Ortega could be deported to Mexico. The attorney described the arrest as “arbitrary and capricious.”

“She was following the prescribed law of what someone is supposed to do,” Kozik said.

Serrano, a US citizen born in Puerto Rico, married Rivera Ortega in June 2022 in Westbury, New York. He has served in the US Army for nearly 28 years and has previously been deployed to Afghanistan.
Recounting the incident, Serrano said they believed they were attending an interview with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) when authorities raised concerns about his wife’s application.

He said they were led down a hallway before ICE officers appeared and detained Rivera Ortega.

“It took me a minute, two minutes to react,” he said. “And then I started to ask, ‘what is going on, what happened, where are they taking her?’”

Serrano said that was the last time he saw his wife, adding that the next legal steps remain uncertain.

Despite the situation, he reaffirmed his commitment to military service.

“I love the Army,” Serrano said. “If I had to do it again…I’d go in and do it again.”

Earlier this month, ICE also detained another military spouse, 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the wife of Sergeant Matthew Blank. Ramos, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, who was brought to the United States as a child, was held for five days before being released.