Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released the wife of an active-duty U.S; Army soldier and Afghanistan war veteran after a monthlong detention, her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano, told CBS News. Serrano’s wife. El Salvador native Deisy Rivera Ortega. Was detained by ICE on April 14 during an immigration appointment in El Paso, Texas. Serrano, who has served in the Army for 27 years, including three deployments to Afghanistan, said last month that his wife had been arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for roughly a decade.

Detention During Immigration Appointment

Rivera Ortega attended that appointment as part of an application for a special immigration program known as Parole in Place, designed to protect military spouses and parents who are in the U.S. illegally or without permanent legal status from deportation. In an interview Thursday, Serrano said he was elated when he received the news of his wife’s release, saying he had come close to giving up. He said they gave each other a ‘big hug.’

‘I don’t have words to describe how happy I feel,’ Serrano told CBS News soon after he picked up his wife from an ICE detention center in El Paso. ‘When they called me that my wife would be released today, I started shaking, tears on my eyes and heart pounding super fast.’

Broader Context of ICE Enforcement

Rivera Ortega’s arrest was one of several ICE detentions in recent months involving relatives of U.S. service members. While historically rare, those arrests have become more common under the second Trump administration, which has vowed to oversee the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history. At the time, the Department of Homeland Security said ICE arrested Rivera Ortega because of a deportation order dating back to 2019. DHS also said she was convicted of entering the U.S. illegally, a federal misdemeanor.

Legal Protections and Parole in Place

Serrano said his wife had been working in the U.S. legally with a government permit stemming from a legal protection she received under the United Nations Convention Against Torture that shields her from being deported to her native El Salvador. If granted, her pending Parole in Place application could also allow Rivera Ortega to obtain a green card or permanent residency based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen. The Parole in Place program is specifically designed to protect military spouses and parents who are in the U.S. illegally or without permanent legal status from deportation.