ICE Releases Wife of Army Sgt. Jose Serrano After Month in Detention

Immigration and Customs Enforcement released the wife of an active-duty U.S. Army soldier and Afghanistan war veteran on Thursday after holding her for a month, her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, told CBS News.

Deisy Rivera Ortega, a native of El Salvador, was detained by ICE on April 14 during an immigration appointment in El Paso, Texas. Serrano, who has served in the Army for 27 years with three deployments to Afghanistan, first told CBS News last month that his wife had been arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for about a decade.

She went to the appointment as part of an application for Parole in Place, a special program to protect military spouses and parents in the U.S. illegally or without permanent legal status from deportation.

Rivera Ortega's arrest was one of several ICE detentions in recent months of relatives of U.S. service members. Such cases were historically rare but have grown more common under the second Trump administration, which has promised the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history.

The Department of Homeland Security said at the time that ICE arrested Rivera Ortega because of a deportation order from 2019. DHS added that she had been convicted of entering the U.S. illegally, a federal misdemeanor.

Serrano said his wife had worked legally in the U.S. with a government permit based on protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which bars her deportation to El Salvador. Her pending Parole in Place application, if approved, could let her get a green card or permanent residency through her marriage to a U.S. citizen.

Serrano said ICE officials told his wife in detention that she faced deportation to a third country, such as Mexico, since her protection only prevents return to El Salvador. He married Rivera Ortega in 2022 and said the detention worsened his mental health issues; he has received prior treatment for a traumatic brain injury, PTSD and depression.

White House border czar Tom Homan told CBS News last week he would "look into" Rivera Ortega's case when asked about it. He said people with deportation orders have received "due process," but called it a "difficult" case and noted that ICE officers "have discretion" on enforcement targets.