Active-duty U.S. military personnel are reporting that their spouses and parents are being detained or deported as part of an expanded immigration enforcement campaign under former President Donald Trump. These detentions are occurring even as the individuals have pending immigration cases or are otherwise complying with immigration processes.
Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez's wife, Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo, was detained by masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers outside a Walmart on July 11, with their 6-year-old daughter witnessing the event. Villafranca Trejo was temporarily removed from a plane bound for Honduras after Turcios Juarez intervened with documentation proving her immigration case was still pending. She remains detained at Camp East Montana, a facility at Fort Bliss, Texas.
Villafranca Trejo, who fled Honduras in 2016 due to violence, had been seeking to expedite her naturalization process through her husband's military service. Turcios Juarez, who became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after joining the military, stated that his wife is not a threat and that the family is trying to stay together. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not comment on Villafranca Trejo's case.
According to an investigation by the Associated Press, more than 50 parents and spouses of service members have been caught in Trump's deportation efforts, with at least six already deported. Danitza James, CEO of Repatriate Our Patriots, an organization assisting military families, stated that her group is currently working with eight active-duty service members and one veteran whose family members have been detained. Many of these individuals lack criminal records in their states of residence.
The detentions occur amid Trump's repeated claims of targeting