Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of active-duty U.S. Army Sgt. Jose Serrano, returned home Thursday evening after being freed from federal immigration custody, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed. Her release followed a month of detention that began April 14, when ICE agents arrested her during an appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services intended to advance her application for permanent residency.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and combat veteran, told The Associated Press she personally called Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday to advocate for Ortega’s release after advocacy groups alerted her to the case.
“Rivera-Ortega has been released from ICE custody with a GPS tracking device, mandatory home visits, and ICE office check-ins. She will receive full due process,” DHS said in a statement.
The couple married in 2022. Serrano, who served three tours in Afghanistan, is stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. According to DHS, Rivera Ortega, a native of El Salvador, entered the U.S. illegally in 2016 and a judge issued a final removal order in December 2019. Despite that order, she held a military spouse identification card and employment authorization, and was employed by two hotels while applying for the parole-in-place program designed to shield the immediate relatives of military members from immigration enforcement while they adjust their legal status.
But in April 2025, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that considered a family member’s military service a “significant mitigating factor” in deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement. The new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.” Since then, DHS has placed more than 100 immediate relatives of military veterans into removal proceedings, according to the department. It has also initiated removal proceedings against 34 military veterans as of January.
Advocacy groups have warned that detaining the spouses of active-duty soldiers poses a national security risk by creating a distraction from military duties. “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 then who’s going to look after the children,” Duckworth told the AP. “Our war fighters need to be talking and thinking and solely focused on the enemy who would do us harm and who would attack the United States, and they should not have to worry about the well-being of their family members back at home.”
The release is not the first such case. Following public outcry and intervention from congressional leaders from both parties, spouses of veterans and active-duty soldiers have been released from immigration custody in some instances, the AP reported.