A U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bliss is looking for answers after his wife was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during a routine immigration check-in.
Sgt. José Serrano Arosio’s wife, Daisy Rivera Ortega, was detained on April 14 after an immigration appointment at the El Paso immigration building off of Montana Avenue. She was unable to say anything to him before agents whisked her away.
“(I am) surprised, everyone in the family is confused,” Serrano Arosio said. “My wife never received a letter or appointment to see ICE. That is the big concern and surprise. We are still asking why, what is the reason my wife is detained?”
Kozik believes that Rivera Ortega is the first spouse of a servicemember to be detained in El Paso. She had followed all the rules, Serrano Arosio said.
Matthew Kozik, Serrano Arosio’s attorney, filed a habeas corpus petition on behalf of Rivera Ortega on Friday, April 17, seeking her release. She is currently being held at ICE’s El Paso service processing center, where she is being pressured to sign a removal order to Mexico under the promise that it is the only way for her release.
“We are waiting on the federal court system to act,” Kozik said.
Serrano Arosio, who was born in Puerto Rico, and Rivera Ortega, who is from El Salvador, married in June 2022.
The couple had met a few years prior in New York City, where he was working as an Army recruiter and she was working in a deli. They began dating in 2021 after a friend of hers asked him for his Facebook profile, and remained in contact after he was deployed to Europe.
She had worked on Fort Bliss since Serrano Arosio was transferred to the Army Post. Each day, she would pass through the post gates with a military spouse’s identification.
Her detention has worsened Serrano Arosio’s PTSD and depression symptoms. He had been receiving treatment and was seeing success in controlling his symptoms before her arrest.
“I was in control until this happened,” he said. “I am sleeping just two hours a day. My mind doesn’t stop thinking, walking around the house, talking to myself.”
Arrested for ‘illegal entry’
Rivera Ortega held a work permit and never missed an appointment, Serrano Arosio said. But the Department of Homeland Security said that she was detained for “illegal entry” stemming from when she entered the United States in 2016.
“She was previously convicted for illegal entry — a federal offense,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said. “Work authorization does not confer any legal status to be in the country. Rivera Ortega remains in ICE custody pending removal.”
But this makes no sense to Kozik, who points out that she benefited from a withholding of removal issued by a judge in 2019. He points out that she was not involved in any immigration case. He points out that DHS is trying to tarnish her name.
DHS is violating Rivera Ortega’s right to due process and her right to contest a third-country removal order, Kozik argued. He questions the reasons for her detention, pointing out that she has no convictions and has been lawfully present.
Her arrest raises questions about the Trump administration’s efforts to crackdown on immigration and expand deportations, as army spouses have increasingly become targeted in enforcement operations. In another case, the Honduran-born wife of a servicemember was detained by ICE in Fort Polk, Louisiana, before later being released.
“Are we really going to be, politically speaking, a nation that deports the spouses of service members?” Kozik asked. “If that is what we are, that will be spoken to in the November election.”
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached at:jdabbott@usatodayco.com; @palabrasdeabajo on Twitter or @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bliss looks to free wife from ICE detention
Reporting by Jeff Abbott, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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