ICE Detains Army Sergeant's Wife at Check-In

Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of a U.S. Army sergeant with nearly three decades of service, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on April 14, 2026, during a routine immigration check-in in El Paso, Texas. The arrest, which occurred at a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building as part of proceedings under the Parole in Place program, has left her in custody at the El Paso Service Processing Center and sparked a legal challenge from her family.

Rivera Ortega, a Salvadoran national who has lived in the United States since 2016, married Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano in 2022. Serrano, 51 and born in Puerto Rico, has served in the Army for 27 years, including three deployments to Afghanistan. The couple resides in the military community near Fort Bliss, where Rivera Ortega works at IHG Army Hotels and holds a valid work permit through 2030. She was previously granted withholding of removal in 2019, a protection that bars her deportation to El Salvador due to conditions there.

According to Serrano, the appointment was intended to advance Rivera Ortega's application for legal residency as the spouse of an active-duty service member. Instead, officers...