AP Photo/Ryan Romero
Composite story
Wife of active-duty U.S. soldier deported to Honduras
ICE removed Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, wife of a Fort Bliss Army sergeant and mother of a 6-year-old, after a 2017 missed hearing. DHS says she received due process; her husband says a parole-in-place bid and appeal were still pending.
Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, wife of Fort Bliss Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, was deported to Honduras on Monday, her family and DHS said. ICE detained her July 11 outside a Walmart near the base, with their 6-year-old daughter present, and held her at Camp East Montana. DHS said she entered illegally in 2016, missed a 2017 hearing, and received due process. Her husband said she never got the hearing notice, learned of the order when they sought a green card after marrying in 2022, and still had a Board of Immigration Appeals filing and a military parole-in-place application pending. The AP counts her as at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty service member deported in the Trump-era crackdown.
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Wife of active-duty Army sergeant is deported to Honduras under Trump's immigration crackdown
24 Aug 2026
Facts
In some instances DHS has released military spouses after media attention and congressional advocacy.
An appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals remained pending, her attorney said.
Her motion to reopen was denied last May, according to her attorney.
Before Trump's second term, ICE typically let immediate family of troops adjust status even with a final removal order, a former ICE deputy chief counsel said.
Rep. Veronica Escobar opened a congressional inquiry and visited Villafranca-Trejo at Camp East Montana.
Turcios said he is unsure how he will care for his daughter without his wife.
He said he has not figured out how to tell his daughter what happened.
He says he still wants to keep serving his country.
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Gividen said ICE would not have detained or removed an active-duty spouse who could get a green card.
Escobar said her heart breaks for Villafranca, her children and the soldier who must feel betrayed.
Escobar said far too many families like theirs are being targeted instead of supported.
Turcios said he loves what he does in the Army and wants to keep doing it.
Wife of active-duty US Army sergeant is deported
24 Aug 2026
Facts
Trump's crackdown includes visa and green-card revocations and an aggressive deportation drive.
Trump says the crackdown aims to improve domestic security.
The USS Abraham Lincoln was deployed in the Middle East during the Iran war.
Rights groups say the crackdown has violated free speech and due process and raised racial-profiling concerns.
The administration has also made legal immigration more difficult, including expensive fees for some work visas.
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Reuters called the deportation the latest example of the crackdown's impact on relatives of U.S. military members.
Reuters said ICE has been the face of Trump's immigration crackdown and deportation drive.
Wife of active-duty Army sergeant deported to Honduras
25 Aug 2026
Facts
She spent more than two months detained at Camp East Montana at Fort Bliss.
Turcios said he talked with his wife after she was deported.
He told Military Times she is okay.
The couple has been legally married since 2022.
In 2024 they began a citizenship application and learned of a 2017 removal order after a missed appearance.
She was listed as a dependent in the Army personnel system and on upcoming orders to move to Oklahoma.
Turcios said she thought her case had been closed after initial appointments.
The couple met in 2018.
They were working with legal counsel to appeal.
DHS did not immediately comment to Military Times.
Opinion
Turcios said his wife entered the United States looking for a better life.
Wife of active-duty Army sergeant deported amid Trump's immigration campaign
24 Aug 2026
Facts
DHS described her as an illegal alien from Honduras.
DHS said she was released into the country under the Obama administration.
He attended high school in the United States.
ABC found no criminal records in home-state files for the military spouses named in its story.
James said she was working with eight active-duty members and one veteran whose relatives were detained as of Aug. 20.
Trump has said ICE is targeting the worst of the worst and has described immigrants who entered illegally as animals and dangerous criminals.
Advocacy groups say the detentions come as the U.S. is at war with Iran, leaving troops without family support.
DHS said having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate U.S. laws.
Some troops have been forced to take leave to care for children after spouses were detained, advocacy groups and families told ABC.
Danitza James of Repatriate Our Patriots said that besides legal representation the group's other strategy has been to call Congress.
DHS said military service by an immediate relative does not automatically grant parole, lawful status or immunity.
The National Military Family Association said military families long occupied a protected corner of the immigration system.
Under GOP and Democratic administrations, undocumented parents and spouses of troops were generally shielded from deportation.
Military recruiters have long promoted service as a pathway to citizenship, including programs for undocumented relatives.
Villafranca relayed allegedly inhumane conditions at Camp East Montana, according to her husband.
Green-card holders can join the U.S. military and apply for naturalization after a year of honorable service.
Turcios said he left Honduras in 2014 to escape violence.
Lawyers, advocacy groups and military families say undocumented spouses and parents of other troops have also been forced into detention.
Turcios said his wife had to wear the same clothes for about four days.
Rep. Veronica Escobar sent an inquiry to ICE about Villafranca's lack of clean clothing.
During World War I, Congress streamlined citizenship for troops whose enlistment could mean automatic citizenship.
She was taken into custody at a green-card interview in front of Jaramillo, in uniform, and their 5-year-old son.
Camp East Montana is the country's largest detention center, on former Japanese-American internment land.
Hispanic Army recruits grew from about 19% of new enlistees in 2020 to nearly 27% last year, ABC reported.
Military naturalizations rose from about 4,500 in 2020 to 16,000 in 2024, according to DHS data.
The Philippines, Mexico, Jamaica and Nigeria were among leading origin countries for troops naturalized through service.
Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo has served 11 years and is stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana.
His wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, came from São Paulo, Brazil, in 2019 on a tourist visa she overstayed.
Jaramillo credits Kelly for getting Lopes Eliaser returned to the U.S.; she was flown back from Brazil without leaving the plane and reunited in Louisiana.
Her husband said she spent two days in a Georgia jail then about six weeks at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in a room with about 80 people.
On July 13 ICE put her on a bus to Alexandria, Louisiana, then a flight that stopped in Bogotá bound for Brazil.
Jaramillo said he had been communicating with Sen. Mark Kelly about the case before she was taken to the airport.
In an Aug. 9 letter, congressional Democrats said they will investigate whether the Pentagon and DHS are coordinating to deport service members and their families.
Jaramillo took leave to care for his son and fight to get his wife back, and said he would return to service on Monday.
Jaramillo said he incurred more than $7,000 in legal fees and paperwork costs, about a month's pay.
James said many other detained military-family cases have involved members of Congress calling to reunite families.
Jaramillo said his wife still has health issues from crowded detention without clean clothing, and he took her to a doctor Thursday.
Kelly has publicly been involved with two other cases of military families targeted for deportation.
DHS did not respond at the time to a request for comment on Eliaser's case.
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Turcios said she is not a threat to anybody and they are trying to keep their family together.
Turcios said she has been a very supportive wife since he decided to join the military.
James said many military families are living in the shadows of the immigration machine, afraid to seek help while a service member is serving.
ABC said the cases complicate the administration's central argument for expanding immigration enforcement.
ABC said Turcios' family is hardly alone.
Sen. Kelly said Maisa's case shows the administration targeting loved ones of those who serve, and that it is wrong.
James said change should be legislative or policy, not a one-case phone call, and should be codified.
Jaramillo called the episode a nightmare he cannot explain.
Army sergeant's wife deported to Honduras under Trump crackdown
25 Aug 2026
Facts
The Lincoln has drawn attention for an extended Middle East deployment and reports of poor conditions and low morale.
Joshua Aviles said his father is Luis Manuel Aviles, 48.
He said his father had a driver's license, Social Security card and work permit and was waiting on a green card.
Opinion
The Hill framed it as a family member swept up in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Joshua Aviles said it is heartbreaking to work 12-plus-hour days while his father may be treated like a criminal.
Aviles said his father's only crime was coming to the country to give his children a better life.
Army soldier's wife deported in immigration crackdown
25 Aug 2026
Facts
For years, parents and spouses of service members were protected from deportation under a significant-mitigating-factor clause.
FOX wrote that he left Honduras in 2016 amid violence.
Last year the Trump administration issued a memo doing away with that exemption.
In recent months many of those family members have been detained.
The arrest was in Florida.
His wife told the AP he has lived in the United States 19 years and has a work permit.
Opinion
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