Deisy Rivera Ortega Detained by ICE: The Case Raising Hard Questions About Who the Government Protects

Deisy Rivera Ortega entered an immigration office in El Paso, Texas, on April 14 for what her husband believed to be a positive development. On his wife’s behalf, Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano, who has served in the US Army for almost thirty years, including a deployment to Afghanistan, submitted a Parole in Place application. The program is only available to spouses of active-duty military personnel who are in the nation illegally. She needed to go to an appointment. Her work permit was in effect. She was identified as the spouse of an active-duty soldier by her military ID. She entered. She didn’t emerge.

At that appointment, she was arrested by ICE. Her husband told CBS News that he hadn’t slept for more than two hours every night since it occurred, and by Sunday, she was being detained at the agency’s El Paso processing center. “I don’t really understand why,” Serrano replied, “because she followed the rules of immigration by the T since day one.” “It’s not the Army, sir,” said the man who had dedicated the majority of his adult life to an organization and was now witnessing that same government function in ways he couldn’t reconcile. It’s ICE, and ICE is currently out of control.”

The headline-level summary fails to adequately convey the legal complexity of Rivera Ortega’s situation. In 2016, she broke into the country illegally close to the Rio Grande Valley. A deportation order was issued by an immigration judge in December 2019, but she was also granted protection under the Convention Against Torture, a United Nations treaty that forbids sending people to nations where they might be tortured. She could not be returned to her home country of El Salvador due to that protection. She was also able to get a work permit and keep a legitimate job thanks to the protection. At the time of her arrest, she was employed at hotels on Fort Bliss, the Army base where her husband is based.

In a statement to CBS News, the Department of Homeland Security referred to her as a “criminal illegal alien” and mentioned that she had been found guilty of illegal entry, a federal misdemeanor. According to DHS, she was given “full due process” and the removal process was proceeding. The complicating factor, which makes it more difficult to write off this case as simple enforcement, is that officials allegedly informed Serrano that his wife could be deported to Mexico instead of El Salvador, where she has no family, connections, or history. Since Serrano is prohibited from traveling to Mexico as an active-duty military member, deportation there would essentially prevent them from seeing each other without endangering his career.

The lawyer who challenged the detention in federal court through a habeas corpus petition, Matthew Kozik, is no ordinary immigration attorney. He is a combat veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star and worked as an Army judge advocate for ten years. “What is going on is absurd,” he declared. That statement has a different kind of weight than a typical lawyer’s comment because it comes from someone who worked in the military legal system for ten years.

Here, the larger context is important. The current administration has eliminated Biden-era regulations that had previously restricted ICE enforcement against military families, leading to an increase in detentions of immigrant spouses and parents of active-duty service members. The group Repatriate is led by veteran Danitza James. The situation, according to Our Patriots, creates “uncertainty” that affects military readiness—the notion that a force cannot operate at full capacity when its members are dealing with ongoing family crises. As this specific case develops, it seems to be at the crossroads of various debates concerning what the government owes its employees. As of April 21, 2026, the solution is still being worked out in a Texas federal courtroom.