An active-duty US Army Sergeant is fighting to save his family after federal agents took his wife into custody during a routine meeting in Texas. Despite his decades of military service, the veteran now faces a desperate race against time to prevent her immediate deportation. The sudden arrest has sparked a fierce row over how the government treats the spouses of those serving in uniform.
Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano has spent 27 years in the US Army, including time stationed in Afghanistan, yet nothing prepared him for his wife's arrest by immigration agents last week.
What the 51-year-old believed would be a standard appointment in El Paso, Texas, ended with Deisy Rivera Ortega being led away in handcuffs. Telling his story to CBS News, the soldier confessed he is still at a loss as to why a routine meeting on 14 April turned into a family nightmare.
Protected Status Ignored
Having moved to the US in 2016, Rivera Ortega later married Serrano in 2022. Her legal right to stay was backed by a 2019 court ruling, where a judge used the Convention Against Torture to block her return to El Salvador due to safety concerns. Holding a legitimate work authorisation, she supported her family by working at two different hotels located within the Fort Bliss military base.
Even with those protections in place, DHS maintains that her original entry years ago was illegal and that she is still under a deportation order. Serrano noted that officials suggested sending his wife to a third country, like Mexico, despite the fact that she has no connections or relatives living there.
“ICE is out of control right now”: Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano said his wife, Deisy Rivera Ortega, was arrested by ICE on April 14 during an appointment at an immigration office in Texas, where they both presented their military ID cards.
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 20, 2026
Now, his wife, who is charged with… pic.twitter.com/owx2aQHfkC
'I don't really understand why, because she followed the rules of immigration by the T since day one,' Serrano said. 'I love the Army. The Army helped me out for almost 28 years. It's not the Army, it's ICE.' He added, 'ICE is out of control right now.'
Impact on Veteran Mental Health
As a veteran born in Puerto Rico, Serrano admitted this ordeal has taken a heavy toll on his mental well-being. He has struggled with a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and depression in the past, and he revealed that since his wife was taken, he has managed only two hours of sleep a night.
The couple had requested Parole in Place, a programme designed to shield military spouses from deportation and offer them a potential route to legal residency. Serrano explained that he had made his military background clear to the ICE officers before they took his wife away, yet they chose to go ahead with the arrest anyway.
As of Sunday night, Rivera Ortega remained in custody at the ICE processing facility in El Paso. Her lawyer, Matthew Kozik—himself a combat veteran and former Army judge advocate—has now lodged a habeas petition with the federal court, describing her imprisonment as 'absurd'.
A Growing Trend for Military Families
Advocacy groups for military families suggest that incidents of this nature are on the rise under the present government. Although ICE has traditionally exercised leniency when dealing with the close relatives of those in uniform, it appears these safeguards are being dismantled.
Serrano is now haunted by the fear that if his wife is sent to Mexico, he will be unable to visit her without jeopardising his life in the military, as personnel are typically forbidden from crossing the border. 'We don't know nobody in Mexico,' he said. 'Plus, as military, we're not allowed to go to Mexico.'
This isn't the first time such an incident has occurred; ICE agents previously took a US Army sergeant's wife into custody at a military base in Louisiana just as he prepared for deployment. Annie Ramos was arrested only days after marrying Matthew Blank, a soldier whose service history includes time spent across Europe and the Middle East.
