Deisy Rivera Ortega Detained: How ICE Arrested an Army Sergeant’s Wife at a Routine Immigration Appointment

To do the right thing, she entered a government office. In handcuffs, she departed. On April 14, Deisy Rivera Ortega was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a scheduled visit to an immigration office in El Paso.

The visit was related to a Parole in Place application that her husband had submitted on her behalf. There was no outstanding threat to public safety, no criminal warrant, and no dramatic pursuit, according to CBS News. Federal agents were waiting on the other side of the door, and it was just a woman going to an appointment.

Category	Details
Full Name	Deisy Rivera Ortega
Nationality	Salvadoran
In the U.S. Since	2016
Married	2022, to Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano
Work Status at Arrest	Active U.S. work permit
Legal Protection Granted	2019 — Convention Against Torture (blocked deportation to El Salvador)
Date of Detention	April 14, 2026
Location of Detention	El Paso Immigration Office, Texas
Current Custody Location	ICE El Paso Processing Center
DHS Classification	“Criminal illegal alien” (federal misdemeanor: illegal entry)
Husband’s Service	27 years, including deployments to Afghanistan
Legal Representation	Attorney Matthew Kozik (Bronze Star recipient, former Army judge advocate)
Court Filing	Habeas petition arguing detention is unlawful
Possible Deportation Destination	Mexico (third country — no family ties there)

Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano, her spouse, has spent 27 years in the U.S. Army, including time spent in Afghanistan. He is fifty-one years old. He has dedicated more than half of his life to this nation. He is currently sleeping for two hours every night while engaged in a legal battle on American soil that he never anticipated.

Rivera Ortega has lived in the United States since 2016 and wed Serrano in 2022. She was granted protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture by an immigration judge in December 2019, preventing her deportation to El Salvador and enabling her to maintain a valid work permit in the United States.

She had been working at Fort Bliss hotels with that permit, according to CBS News. She had a military spouse ID with her. She was deeply ingrained in a life centered on serving in the US military by every conceivable standard.

Rivera Ortega was classified as a “criminal illegal alien” by the Department of Homeland Security due to a federal misdemeanor conviction for unauthorized entry into the United States. It’s a legal framing that is intended to sound harsh.

However, one of the least serious federal offenses currently on the books is illegal entry; in a different era, this kind of charge might have quietly resolved itself over time. It doesn’t explain why, in April 2026, a woman who was protected by an international treaty, married to a decorated soldier, had a spotless record since 2016, an active work permit, and a priority for detention.

According to Serrano, he was told that his wife might be deported to a third country, possibly Mexico, where she would have no family, no connections, and no support system at all. He said, “We don’t know nobody in Mexico,” to CBS News. Inkl That particular detail is especially confusing. not sent back to her home country. deported to a nation she has never known. It’s the kind of result that feels more like punishment than enforcement.

Serrano’s detention is illegal, according to a habeas petition filed in federal court by attorney Matthew Kozik, a Bronze Star recipient and former Army judge advocate who currently represents Serrano and Rivera Ortega. He stated bluntly on CBS News, “What is going on is absurd.” That assessment is significant coming from someone who spent years defending this nation in court after serving in the military.

This is not an isolated instance. It is consistent with a trend that has become more noticeable in recent months: military families, spouses of active-duty service members, and even children of veterans are caught up in immigration enforcement actions that don’t seem to take into account their connections to the U.S. military.

Days after her planned marriage to an Army staff sergeant in Louisiana, Thewomenpost Annie Ramos was arrested by ICE at his military base. Only after her story made it to national news outlets was she finally freed. It is concerning that such exposure appears to be the deciding factor rather than legal merit.

Third-country deportations have become more common as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, which detractors claim denies detainees the chance to voice concerns about their safety before being deported. Daily Kos For Serrano, the situation is even more dire: even if his wife were deported to Mexico, he would probably not be able to visit her due to travel restrictions as an active-duty soldier.

Due to his years of service, Serrano has previously received treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury. He claims he is only getting two hours of sleep every night since his wife’s incarceration. Thewomenpost It’s difficult to look away from the picture of a man who survived Afghanistan, who spent decades serving a nation that sent him into combat zones, and who is now lying awake in the dark, wondering what will happen to his wife.

“ICE is out of control right now, sir,” Serrano said to CBS. “Taking away rights, as soldiers, that we have.” It’s a remarkable statement from a man who has lived his whole adult life in an organization that relies on chain of command and discipline. He is not upset with the Army. He is upset about the events surrounding it. He is also becoming less and less alone.