Deisy Rivera Ortega was released from federal immigration custody Thursday evening and returned home after spending a month in detention. Immigration agents had arrested the El Salvador native during an April 14 appointment with immigration services, the same visit she was making to advance her application for permanent residency.
Sgt. Jose Serrano, an active duty soldier stationed in Texas, said his wife was taken at the appointment. Serrano, who served three tours in Afghanistan, and Rivera Ortega have been married since 2022. Her release came after a period in which supporters pressed for her freedom and lawmakers raised alarms about what her detention meant for military families.
The Department of Homeland Security said Rivera Ortega was freed with a GPS tracking device, mandatory home visits and ICE office check-ins, and said she will receive full due process. The department also said she entered the United States illegally in 2016 and that a judge issued a final order of removal in December 2019. Rivera Ortega had been applying for the parole-in-place program, which is designed to shield the immediate relatives of military family members from immigration enforcement while they work to adjust their legal status.
Her case has become a flashpoint because it sits at the intersection of immigration enforcement and military readiness. Tammy Duckworth’s office said Rivera Ortega held a military spouse ID card and a valid work permit and had been employed by two hotels. Duckworth told The that she personally contacted DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday after learning of Rivera Ortega’s situation from advocacy groups.
“Our active duty service members, some of whom are deployed themselves, should not have to worry about whether or not their spouse, who oftentimes is the primary caregiver for their children, is going to be detained, and then who’s going to look after the children,” Duckworth said. She added that “our war fighters need to be talking and thinking and solely focused on the enemy who would do us harm and who would attack the United States, and they should not have to worry about the well-being of their family members back at home.”
The detention also landed amid a policy shift last April, when DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that treated a military family member’s service as a significant mitigating factor in deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration’s newer policy says military service alone does not exempt people from immigration law consequences. DHS said more than 100 immediate family members of military veterans have been placed into removal proceedings under the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, and 34 military veterans were also placed in removal proceedings as of Jan. 26.
For Rivera Ortega and Serrano, Thursday night closed one chapter and exposed another. The release ended her month in custody, but it did not erase the removal order that still hangs over the case.
