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The 51-year-old staff sergeant José Serrano, with more than two decades of active service in the United States Army —including deployments in Afghanistan— publicly reported that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested his wife, Deisy Rivera Ortega, on Monday, April 14, during a routine appointment at an immigration office in El Paso, Texas, according to Telemundo.
Rivera Ortega, originally from El Salvador, has been in the United States since 2016 and married Serrano in 2022.
The appointment during which she was detained was related to a request for Parole in Place, a special program designed to provide immigration protections to spouses of military personnel in undocumented situations, which Serrano had submitted the previous year and was still pending at the time of the arrest.
In December 2019, an immigration judge granted Rivera Ortega protection under the Convention Against Torture, a UN treaty that prohibits her deportation to El Salvador. However, that protection does not prevent the government from deporting her to a third country, and ICE officials informed Serrano that his wife could be sent to Mexico, a country where she has no family or social ties.
Serrano, born in Puerto Rico, noted that as an active military member, he has restrictions on traveling to Mexico, which would make contact with his wife nearly impossible if she is deported there. "We don't know anyone in Mexico. Additionally, as a military member, I am not permitted to go to Mexico."
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