Family “is heartbroken” to learn soldier’s wife won’t be released by ICE after all

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information after previously reporting she was expected to be released.

The wife of an Army soldier who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an immigration appointment last week is not going to be released from federal custody after all, her family and attorney said Wednesday. The news came just hours after her husband, Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano, told CBS News she’d been informed she was being released.  

“As you can imagine the family is heartbroken,” attorney Matthew James Kozik said. 

Serrano’s wife, El Salvador native Deisy Rivera Ortega, was arrested by ICE on April 14 during an appointment related to a pending application for an immigration program, known as Parole in Place, designed to protect military spouses and parents from deportation.

Kozik said they spoke with her earlier Wednesday and she was “elated” that immigration officials had told her she’d be released by the end of the day from an ICE detention center in El Paso. However, he said, DHS/ICE officials then told him she would not be released into the U.S. but would be deported to Mexico. Kozik said he is preparing a court challenge to block her deportation.

Serrano, who has served in the Army for 27 years, including three deployments in Afghanistan, first revealed to CBS News earlier this week that his wife had been arrested by ICE after living in the U.S. for a decade.

The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News at the time that Rivera Ortega had been arrested because of a deportation order dating back to 2019. DHS said she was convicted of entering the U.S. illegally, a federal misdemeanor.

Because Rivera Ortega was granted legal protection in 2019 from being deported to El Salvador, Serrano said he was informed she could be sent to a third country, like Mexico, where she has no ties.

CBS News has reached out to representatives for the DHS for comment on the latest on Rivera Ortega’s case.