Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano has served in the United States Army for 27 years. He served in Afghanistan. He has a traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and depression. Since April 14, he has been sleeping two hours a night. His wife is in ICE custody.

Deisy Rivera Ortega was arrested by ICE at an immigration office in El Paso on April 14. She was there for an appointment related to a Parole in Place application, a program specifically created by the United States government to offer deportation protections to the spouses of active duty military members. She was not there despite the system. She was there because of it. She followed the rules, showed up when asked, and was arrested in the building where she was supposed to be helped.

Rivera Ortega has lived in the United States since 2016. She has an active work permit. She was working at two hotels inside Fort Bliss, the Army installation where her husband is stationed. She carries a military ID identifying her as the spouse of an active duty soldier. In 2019, an immigration judge granted her protection under the Convention Against Torture, a United Nations treaty, because she faces a credible risk of being tortured if returned to El Salvador. That protection has been in place for seven years. The Trump administration is now threatening to deport her to Mexico, a country where she has no family, no ties, and no support network. Military regulations prohibit service members from traveling to Mexico. If she is sent there, Serrano will not be able to see her without jeopardizing the career he has given 27 years of his life to.

Historically, ICE has exercised discretion in cases involving the immediate relatives of active duty service members, absent national security or public safety concerns. That discretion has been eliminated. Detentions of military spouses and parents have become increasingly common under the second Trump administration. Rivera Ortega's attorney, a former Army judge advocate and bronze star recipient who served for ten years, has filed a federal habeas petition arguing her detention is unlawful. He called what is happening absurd. A military veterans advocacy group has warned that when the promise to protect those who serve is broken, military readiness suffers because a force cannot be mission ready when its families are left in limbo.

Serrano said it clearly and simply: ICE is out of control right now, taking away rights that soldiers have earned. He loves the Army. He has given nearly three decades to it. He is not asking for special treatment. He is asking for the protection that has historically been extended to the families of people who put on the uniform and serve. That protection existed for a reason. It exists because the people we ask to fight for this country cannot fight effectively when their families are being detained, threatened with deportation to countries they have never lived in, and torn away from the only home they have known.

Deisy Rivera Ortega should be released immediately. Her Parole in Place application should be processed on its merits. And the practice of using military spouse immigration appointments as opportunities to make arrests must end now.

Sign this petition to demand ICE immediately release Deisy Rivera Ortega and process her Parole in Place application, prohibit ICE from arresting military spouses at immigration appointments specifically designed to help them obtain legal status, and restore historical ICE discretion policies protecting the immediate family members of active duty service members from detention and deportation.