Federal agents detain wife of another US army member: ‘ICE is out of control’

A US army sergeant with 27 years of military service – including deployment to Afghanistan – has said that federal immigration agents recently arrested his wife during an appointment at an El Paso, Texas, immigration office.

In an interview with CBS News published Monday, Sgt First Class Jose Serrano said that Deisy Rivera Ortega, a Salvadoran and his wife, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers under the command of the Trump administration despite receiving legal protection in 2019 that bars her from being deported to El Salvador. Rivera Ortega, who wed Serrano in 2022, has been in the US since 2016, he said.

“I don’t really understand why, because she followed the rules of immigration by the T since day one,” Serrano, 51, told CBS News of her detention.

The Department of homeland security (DHS), which oversees ICE, told CBS News that Rivera Ortega came into the US illegally. Serrano reportedly said he was informed that Rivera Ortega could be removed to a different country, such as Mexico.

Serrano said that Rivera Ortega has no ties to Mexico. “We don’t know nobody in Mexico,” he told CBS.

He also told the network she had an active work permit before her arrest at an immigration law office appointment on 14 April.

Rivera Ortega’s reported case is the latest of several instances that contradict the Trump administration’s initial claims that its ongoing immigration crackdown would prioritize deporting dangerous criminals. As it has sought to increase deportation numbers, the campaign has affected a growing number of military service members’ relatives – often without consideration for the veterans’ records of having defended the US.

DHS told CBS that Rivera Ortega was ordered deported on 12 December 2019 and had received “full due process” prior to that decision. The department called her a “criminal illegal alien” over her conviction of illegal entry into the US, which is a federal misdemeanor.

Matthew Kozik, an attorney who represents Serrano and Rivera Ortega, said that a court petition claiming her detention was illegal. Kozik told CBS he had served the army as a judge advocate and combat veteran; had earned a bronze star during his service and believed “what is going on is absurd”.

Serrano for his part told CBS: “I love the army. (The) army helped me out for almost 28 years. It’s not the army, sir. It’s ICE.

“ICE is out of control right now, sir, taking away rights, as soldiers, that we have.”