The wife of an active-duty U.S. soldier was deported Monday to her native Honduras, according to her family and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. <\/p>\n
Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty U.S. military service member to be deported under President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press has found more than 50 cases<\/a> in which immediate family members of U.S. troops were placed in federal immigration detention after the Trump administration rolled back protections for military families. In some instances, DHS has released military spouses<\/a> following media attention and advocacy by congressional leaders.<\/p>\n Villafranca-Trejo\u2019s husband, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, said he has been struggling to manage his military duties since she was detained July 11 outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas, where he is stationed. Since then, he\u2019s had to care for their 6-year-old daughter without his wife\u2019s help. Instead of training in the mornings, he takes his daughter to first grade, and he said he has already had to postpone a planned assignment at another base.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know if I will be able to continue with this,\u201d Turcios Juarez told AP of his Army career. \u201cI have to make a plan to make sure I can still fulfill my military responsibilities \u2014 but also take care of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n DHS confirmed Villafranca-Trejo\u2019s deportation, saying she had \u201creceived due process.\u201d<\/p>\n Villafranca-Trejo, who has no known criminal record and entered the U.S. in 2016 at age 18, was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2017 after failing to appear at a hearing, according to DHS. Villafranca-Trejo\u2019s husband said she had not received a notice for the hearing she missed and did not realize she had been ordered deported until they went to apply for her green card after marrying in 2022.<\/p>\n Originally from Honduras, Turcios Juarez became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after enlisting two years earlier.<\/p>\n Villafranca-Trejo\u2019s motion to reopen her case was denied last May and an appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals remained pending, according to her attorney. She had also been waiting for about a year for a decision on her application for military parole-in-place, a program that allows the immediate family of U.S. troops to remain in the country to apply for a green card. <\/p>\n \u201cWe were following the rules — we did everything we could on our side to fix this problem,\u201d Turcios Juarez told the AP.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong> Prior to Trump\u2019s second administration, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement would typically allow immediate family members of U.S. troops to adjust their legal status even if they had been issued a final order of removal, according to Dan Gividen, who served as ICE deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019 under Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019ve got an active-duty military member that\u2019s married to someone now, and that\u2019s going to give her the opportunity to get a green card, you wouldn\u2019t detain them, much less execute the removal order,\u201d Gividen said.<\/p>\n JP Caballero, a spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat representing El Paso, said Escobar had opened a congressional inquiry into Villafranca-Trejo\u2019s case and visited her at the Camp East Montana detention facility in Texas earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cMy heart breaks for her, her children and the soldier who must feel so betrayed by the country he is sacrificing for,\u201d Escobar told AP in a statement. \u201cThere are far too many families like theirs who are being targeted instead of supported.\u201d<\/p>\n Turcios Juarez said he is unsure how he will care for his daughter without his wife. He still hasn\u2019t figured out how to tell his daughter what has happened. But he says he still wants to keep serving his country.<\/p>\n \u201cI love what I do, I want to keep doing this,\u201d he said of the Army. \u201cI just don\u2019t know how I am going to keep doing this.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n
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