The Trump administration's immigration crackdown has swept up thousands of people living in the United States illegally, but it has also affected U.S. citizens, permanent residents and refugees directly or indirectly speaking.
The hardline immigration policies have also separated mixed-status families. That was the case for retired Staff Sgt. Wilmer Trujillo, a U.S. Army veteran who served nearly 20 years in the Army and the Texas National Guard and whose wife is now facing deportation.
As detailed in a CBS News exclusive report, Trujillo's wife of six years, Arelys Barahona-Martínez, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week during a check-in appointment in Dallas. Trujillo, who served deployments in Afghanistan, Iraq and South Korea, said his wife had routinely checked in with ICE over the years without any issues until her June 10 arrest.
"It breaks me because the country I worked my entire life for is ripping my family apart and taking away my wife," Trujillo told CBS News. "It makes me sick to my stomach. I never thought I'd be in a situation where I'm begging my own country to let my wife go so we can do things the right way," the veteran added.
Barahona-Martínez, a Honduran national, does not have a criminal record, although immigration officials say she entered the United States illegally twice, first in 2005 and again in 2018. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that she is subject to a deportation order issued more than two decades ago after her initial entry into the country in 2005.
"Barahona-Martinez received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge on November 2, 2005," DHS said. "The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the U.S."
The couple met in 2019, one year after Barahona-Martínez returned to the United States. She told CBS News she came back after leaving in 2006 because her U.S.-born son was being recruited by gangs in Honduras and needed medical treatment for a genetic disorder known as neurofibromatosis, which causes tumors to develop throughout the body.
"She came to this country just to save my life," Ibden, Barahona-Martínez's 20-year-old son, told CBS News, referring to his medical condition.
As noted by the outlet, Barahona-Martínez still has a pathway to obtain permanent U.S. residency through her marriage to Trujillo, a U.S. citizen. Individuals in her situation must persuade an immigration judge to reopen their deportation case and convince the government to forgive their unlawful entries through a parole-in-place program designed to protect military families from deportation.
ICE could allow her to continue that process outside detention. However, as CBS News noted, during President Donald Trump's second term, the agency has prioritized the arrest of individuals with deportation orders regardless of whether they have criminal records, while making it significantly more difficult for detainees to secure release.
"It is truly hell, to be judged as a criminal," Barahona-Martinez said during a video call with Trujillo from inside an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. "The only thing I'm asking is for them to let me be with my family and to complete the process with them," she said.
