Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested the Honduran wife of a retired U.S. Army soldier in Texas.
The Honduran spouse of a U.S. war veteran was detained during her scheduled immigration appointment in Dallas, Texas, making this the third case of a military spouse arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in recent months.
Aris Barahona Martinez is originally from Honduras and first crossed the US border in 2005. She later left the US and returned in 2018. She did not come legally at either time and the Department of Homeland Security confirmed her arrest and said there was nothing wrong with the arrest because it was illegal. But her family said she was in the middle of the appeal process. Her husband, retired Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, told the BBC: “I don’t understand. We have family here, and they are separating us.”
“They are destroying my family. They are my backbone.”They married in 2020. While Barahona Martinez has a 20-year-old son from her previous marriage, Trujillo has two daughters from his previous marriage. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Barahona Martinez “received due process and a final order of deportation was issued by an immigration judge on November 2, 2005.” He added: “The Trump administration will not ignore the rule of law.
She will remain in ICE custody awaiting her removal from the United States.
“On Wednesday, Trujillo took Barahona Martinez to an immigration checkpoint and waited while she met with immigration officials. “For us, it was a regular checkup day, and we always did everything by the book,” Trujillo said. “I told her to do everything by the book. I’m by the book. I was raised military.”Although Martinez entered the United States illegally, she applied for the parole program but was denied in November 2024. Trujillo, on the other hand, is a naturalized American citizen and is originally from Colombia.In April, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested and later released Daisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of an active-duty US soldier, in Texas, after she and her husband went to interview for a parole program. The Department of Homeland Security said Rivera Ortega was a “criminal illegal alien from El Salvador” who committed a “federal crime” by illegally entering the United States through the southern border in 2016. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also arrested Annie Ramos, the new wife of an active-duty U.S. soldier, in April when she and her husband went to get her military ID.
She spent five days in detention before being released. Ramos is an undocumented immigrant who came to the United States as a young child, and the Department of Homeland Security said she does not have legal status.