Heriberto Perez Lara
FORT BLISS, Texas (KVIA) — U.S. Army Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano, who has been stationed at Fort Bliss for two years, says that ICE detained his wife, who could now face possible deportation after being taken into custody during an immigration interview.
Serrano has served for 27 years and has deployed to Afghanistan on three occasions. As he told ABC News, both he and his wife have been “doing everything by the book.”
According to him, he and his wife attended an immigration court hearing on April 14, following the Parole in Place process his wife has been in since last year.
“My wife was apprehended at the end of the hallway after the immigration appointment,” said Sgt. Serrano. “The reason for the parole in place is for the soldier to deploy and continue with the mission and for the wife to stay safe back in the United States.”
“The only thing that happened that day is that one of the four people who work there at the federal building told me that I needed to find a lawyer.”
Sgt. Serrano had to go to the El Paso Service Processing Center in East El Paso to bring his wife some of her medicines when he learned she was detained because she allegedly missed an immigration court hearing or appointment on January 13.
Now Sgt. Serrano and his wife, Deisy Rivera-Ortega, have to speak over the phone two or three times per week, for two to five minutes per call.
“This situation is incredible; we believe it is a mistake,” said Sgt. Serrano.
According to Sgt. Serrano and his attorney, Matthew James Kozik, Rivera-Ortega has no prior convictions or criminal cases in the country.
ABC-7 confirmed through the federal court system database and via attorney Kozik that Rivera-Ortega does not appear in those records either.
ABC-7 reached out to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to request comment; a DHS spokesperson provided us with the following statement:
“On April 14, ICE arrested Deisy Fidelina Rivera-Ortega, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador. She was previously convicted for illegal entry—a federal offense. Rivera-Ortega entered the U.S. in 2016 near Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and was released on bond. She received full due process, and an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal on December 12, 2019. Work authorization does not confer any legal status to be in the country. Rivera-Ortega remains in ICE custody pending removal.”
“We’re going to file a supplemental brief by the end of the week, kind of addressing a few more points on the parole in place program, of which his spouse was in the process of applying for and pending approval, because they deprived her of that ability and deprived the service member (Sgt. Serrano) of the ability to have his spouse be petitioned and become a legal permanent resident,” said attorney Kozik.
“Moreover, she was issued an order of removal, but that order of removal was held, withholding of removal to El Salvador, saying you’re going to be removed, but we’re not going to remove you to El Salvador because we believe you’re going to be tortured if you’re sent back to El Salvador,” attorney Kozik also told ABC-7. “The government had 90 days back in 2019 to initiate her removal; they chose not to, so they decided that she is not a removable person during that 90-day window by case law and said, we’re going to let you stay in the United States again.”
“So they decided back in 2019 not to remove her and instead issued her a work authorization and she’s been working at Fort Bliss, living at Fort Bliss, and has been a positive member of the community and was looking to become a legal permanent resident, where then the rug was taken from underneath her and her husband, military spouse of 27 years, and now she’s confined.” “DHS seems to be tripping over itself, and it doesn’t seem like it knows what it’s doing, since they had 90 days to execute removal back in 2019, they didn’t, they believed she was not a threat, they didn’t believe she would have any issue with being part of the community; they issued her authorizations to work and she’s been doing so,” said attorney Kozik.
“A decision was made almost ten years ago that we’re going to say, look, you’re granted withholding and removal, you can stay, you can work and then here, if you marry a U.S. service member, the Parole in Place Avenue is available, yet again they took that away from her and they haven’t yet to adjudicate the parole in place and we’re still waiting for an answer on that,” attorney Kozik added. “
Back in 2019, the U.S. Congress passed and signed into law the parole-in-place program, which was intended to allow service members to have their mothers, husbands, or wives not be deported.
“The point was, hey, look, if you are a military service member, you don’t want to have to be worried if you’re deployed or you’re at a mobilization or you’re at a training, that your wife won’t be there when you get back.” “The whole point is to provide that opportunity for service members to say, look, we want to make sure your spouse, is your husband or your wives stay with you as long as you don’t have a criminal record, as long as you’re not a bad person or as people like to say, a bad “hombre,” we’re going to allow you to become a legal, permanent resident and they took that away from him (Sgt. Serrano), and it looks like they’re trying to take it away from other service members as well,” Kozik said.
“As soon as she gets out of detention, we will start on the paperwork to get the status of my wife here in the United States, get the green card and continue with the citizenship,” said Sgt. Serrano.
For years and due to his nearly three decades in service, Sgt. Serrano had to start going with a doctor for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and had been stable until his wife was detained by ICE last week.
“It took me around two months to be back stable and now, when this happened, even taking the medication, I cannot sleep; it’s been super hard,” Sgt. Serrano said. “Every night after 7 p.m., my mind doesn’t stop thinking, what can I do?, why did this happen? and I search on the internet for answers.”
“My wife is very religious and she has told me, this is something that had to happen for her to be closer to what God wants; the only person who can get her out of there is him,” Sgt. Serrano said. “She cries pretty much every day, but knows this is something that has to happen for a reason.”
Sgt. Serrano also wanted to thank everyone for the opportunity to send the message to the entire country, so people can “know and see what’s going on in the U.S.”
“Our plans are, first, to get her out of confinement, two, stop any type of removal, three, allow them to continue the parole in place application and four, if necessary, Congress or attention because of the job you’re doing on this issue, is to recertify the importance of parole in place for our service members,” Kozik added.
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