EL PASO, TEXAS — Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Deisy Rivera Ortega on April 14 during an appointment at an immigration office in El Paso, where she had been summoned for an interview related to an application for Parole in Place. As of Sunday evening, ICE's online detainee tracking system indicated she was being held at the agency's El Paso processing center. DHS said in a statement, "Rivera-Ortega remains in ICE custody pending removal."

Rivera Ortega, who has been in the United States since 2016, married Jose Serrano, an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant, in 2022. In December 2019, an immigration judge granted her protection under the Convention Against Torture, blocking her deportation to El Salvador and allowing her to obtain a work permit. She had an active work permit at the time of her arrest and was working at two hotels inside Fort Bliss.

Those granted protection under the Convention Against Torture are simultaneously ordered deported, though that deportation is deferred. The protection does not offer a pathway to U.S. citizenship or prevent the government from deporting beneficiaries to third countries.

DHS said Rivera Ortega entered the United States illegally, was ordered deported on December 12, 2019 after receiving full due process, and was convicted of illegal entry, a federal misdemeanor. DHS described her as a "criminal illegal alien" from El Salvador.

Parole in Place is a program designed to offer deportation protections to military spouses or parents who are in the United States without legal status and to help them obtain legal permanent residency if granted. Serrano submitted a Parole in Place application for his wife last year, and the case remains pending. He said he told officials at the immigration office about his military service before his wife was detained.

"I don't really understand why, because she followed the rules of immigration by the T since day one," Serrano said. He said his wife had been informed she could be deported to a third country like Mexico, where she has no ties. "We don't know nobody in Mexico," he said. "We cannot send her to El Salvador, but we gonna send her to Mexico. Plus, as a military, we're not allowed to go to Mexico."

Attorney Matthew Kozik filed a habeas petition in federal court arguing that the detention is unlawful. "I served the Army as a judge advocate for 10 years. And as a judge advocate and a combat veteran, bronze star service member, what is going on is absurd," Kozik said.

Danitza James, president of the group Repatriate Our Veterans and a U.S. military veteran, said, "When the promise to protect those who serve is delayed, military readiness suffers, because a force cannot be mission-ready when its families are left in limbo."

Detentions of immigrant spouses and parents of U.S. service members have become more common under the second Trump administration, which eliminated Biden-era limits on ICE operations and broadened who is eligible for arrest and deportation. DHS said those cases have involved people with deportation orders or who are otherwise in the United States illegally. Historically, ICE has exercised its discretion to refrain from arresting immediate relatives of U.S. service members, absent national security or public safety concerns.