Wife of active US Army sergeant at risk of deportation to 3rd country
The sergeant has been deployed to Afghanistan three times and served 27 years.
The wife of an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant with 27 years of service is facing potential deportation to a third country after being detained during a routine immigration interview last week.
Deisy Fidelina Rivera Ortega was taken into custody on April 14 in El Paso, Texas, while attending an interview for "Parole in Place," a program designed to allow undocumented family members of military personnel to remain in the U.S. legally.
Rivera Ortega is married to Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, a U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bliss who has been deployed to Afghanistan three times. He told ABC News he and his wife have been “doing everything by the book.”
“She goes to work or to church,” Serrano said. “That’s the life of my wife, Daisy.”
But last week, Serrano said that shortly after they arrived for their appointment at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building, unidentified men detained his wife.
“At the end of the hallway, my wife was apprehended... they put handcuffs on and they took her away,” Serrano told ABC News. “And nobody told me anything, even when I was asking, ‘Hey, what's going on? What's going on with her?’”
Rivera Ortega -- who currently works for IHG Army Hotels at Fort Bliss -- has a valid work permit through 2030 and was previously granted withholding of removal from her home country, El Salvador, according to documents reviewed by ABC News.
She is now at risk of deportation to Mexico, a country the couple has no ties to, Serrano said. He told ABC News that as an active-duty sergeant, he would likely not be able to travel to Mexico if his wife were deported.
“In the Army, travel to Mexico is extremely restrictive,” Matthew Kozik, the couple’s attorney, told ABC News. “He couldn't even just go see his wife.”
Kozik said Rivera Ortega is currently detained at the El Paso Service Processing Center.
“She was detained at a federal government building,” Kozik said. “They wouldn't let anybody ask any questions, and she was escorted away, and we haven't seen her since.”
In a statement to ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security said Rivera Ortega entered the country illegally and was issued a final order of removal.
“Rivera Ortega remains in ICE custody pending removal,” a DHS spokesperson said.
According to court documents, Kozik argues that Rivera Ortega was not issued a final order of removal and said that because an immigration judge granted her withholding of removal from El Salvador in 2019, she is not subject to immediate removal.
“She is entitled to the right to contest those third-party designations... she has a right to contest any termination,” Kozik said. “We are completely in the dark, and that's why we've had to go to federal court to stop this.”
Serrano told ABC News he has been seeing a doctor for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and had been stable until his wife was detained last week.
“I can’t sleep even with the medication, I can’t even read,” he told ABC News. “It's super painful and stressful to not be able to do anything.”