ICE releases wife of U.S. Army soldier after month-long detention

Exclusive Politics ICE releases wife of U.S. Army soldier and Afghanistan veteran, after a month-long detention By Camilo Montoya-Galvez Camilo Montoya-Galvez Immigration Correspondent Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization's social media accounts. Read Full Bio Camilo Montoya-Galvez May 14, 2026 / 10:57 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday 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, first revealed to CBS News last month that his wife had been arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for roughly a decade. Deisy Rivera Ortega and Jose Serrano Jose Serrano She 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.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.Serrano said his wife had been working in the U.S. legally with a government permi...