More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. military personnel have been detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) since the Trump administration took power in January 2025, according to a report by the Associated Press published this Thursday.
The affected officers, mostly Hispanic, say they feel betrayed by a government that simultaneously uses the promise of immigration benefits to attract Latino recruits.
According to the AP report, at least six of those family members have already been deported, and at least eight were still in federal immigration custody at the time of publication.
The agency warns that the actual number of those affected likely exceeds the 51 identified cases, as ICE does not maintain a separate count of family members of active-duty military personnel.
The contradiction fueling the discomfort is clear: military recruiters —especially from the Marine Corps— actively promoted the Parole in Place (PIP) program between 2025 and 2026 as an incentive for Latino immigrants to enlist, suggesting that their families would be protected from deportation.
However, on April 10, 2025, ICE formally revoked the directive that regarded military service as a mitigating factor in immigration enforcement decisions.
The new regulation is explicit: "military service alone does not exempt foreigners from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws."
The Marine Corps, when questioned, ordered its recruiters to remove the posts about the PIP and clarified that the program "is administered by USCIS, not by the Department of Defense, and is not a policy of the Marine Corps or a recruitment benefit."
Among the most documented cases is that of Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of First Class Sergeant José Serrano, a soldier with 27 years of active service.
Rivera Ortega was arrested by ICE in April during a routine immigration appointment in El Paso, Texas, while she was precisely processing her Parole in Place. ICE first promised to release her and then retracted, announcing her deportation; the family responded with a habeas corpus petition before a federal court.
Another previous case is that of Shirly Guardado, the wife of an Army sergeant, deported to Honduras in June 2025 after spending 11 weeks in detention while also processing the PIP.
That list includes Tirso Alonso, father of the 19-year-old marine Christopher Alonso. Alonso was arrested by ICE in West Palm Beach while heading to church, at the time when his son was at a military base in South Carolina.
The paradox that runs through all these cases is the same: individuals who went to immigration appointments to regularize their status through legal means ended up being arrested on the spot, precisely for complying with the process.
According to data provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to the Senate, between January 20, 2025, and January 26, 2026, ICE initiated deportation proceedings against 282 individuals who were either former military personnel or immediate family members of military personnel.
Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congresswoman Houlahan, have sent formal letters to DHS and the Department of Defense demanding explanations and the suspension of these deportations.
An analysis published by Military Times indicates that the migratory stress faced by these soldiers represents an operational readiness issue that the Pentagon has yet to formally measure or acknowledge.
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