ICE releases wife of US Army sergeant from federal custody in Texas

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The Department of Homeland Security said Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of a U.S. Army sergeant, has been released from ICE custody after spending about a month in federal detention, and returned home Thursday evening.

Jose Serrano, an active duty soldier stationed in the Fort Bliss area in Texas who served three tours in Afghanistan, told The Associated Press that immigration agents arrested Rivera Ortega during an April 14 appointment with immigration services. Serrano said the appointment was intended to advance her application for permanent residency.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran and Democrat, said she learned of Rivera Ortega’s situation from advocacy groups and personally contacted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday to advocate for the release. Duckworth told the AP that Rivera Ortega returned home Thursday evening.

The DHS said Rivera Ortega was released from ICE custody with a GPS tracking device, mandatory home visits, and ICE office check-ins, and that she would “receive full due process.” The family of Rivera Ortega did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The DHS said Rivera Ortega entered the U.S. illegally in 2016, and that a judge issued a final order of removal for her in December 2019. Rivera Ortega, a native of El Salvador, had been employed by two hotels, and Duckworth’s office said she held a military spouse ID card and a valid work permit.

Duckworth’s office said Rivera Ortega had been applying for the parole-in-place program, which is designed to protect immediate relatives of military family members from immigration enforcement as they seek to adjust their legal status.

Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that treated a military service connection to an immediate family member as a “significant mitigating factor” when deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s updated policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Duckworth said advocates have warned that detaining spouses of active duty soldiers poses a national security risk by making service members worry about their families. She told the AP that “our active duty service members, some of whom are deployed themselves, should not have to worry about whether or not their spouse, who oftentimes is the primary caregiver for their children, is going to be detained,” and that war fighters “should not have to worry about the well-being of their family members back at home.”

The DHS said more than 100 immediate family members of military veterans have been placed into removal proceedings under the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, and that it has placed 34 military veterans into removal proceedings as of Jan. 26. Following public outcry and intervention from congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, spouses of veterans and active duty U.S. soldiers have been released from federal immigration custody in some cases, including in other incidents reported by MSI. As a related example, MSI previously reported on May 18 that an ICE release in another military-family case drew attention from lawmakers and advocacy groups in April.