The wife of an active-duty US soldier was deported to her native Honduras on Monday, according to her family and the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty US soldier to be deported under the immigration crackdown during Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Villafranca-Trejo’s husband, Army Sgt Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, said he has been struggling to manage his military duties since her detention on 11 July outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas. He stated he has had to postpone a planned assignment at another base to care for their six-year-old daughter.
DHS confirmed Villafranca-Trejo’s deportation, stating she had “received due process”. According to DHS, she was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2017 after failing to appear at a hearing. Villafranca-Trejo’s husband said she had not received a notice for the missed hearing and did not realise she had been ordered deported until they applied for her green card after marrying in 2022.
Her 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 approximately a year for a decision on her application for military parole-in-place, a programme allowing immediate family of US troops to remain in the country to apply for a green card.