Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News brings attention to the case of retired staff sergeant Wilmer Trujillo. A veteran of 20 years with the U.S. Army and Texas National Guard, Trujillo now confronts a significant personal battle. He seeks the prevention of his wife’s deportation by the country he has served since shortly after high school.
“It breaks me because the country I worked my entire life for is ripping my family apart, and taking away my wife,” Trujillo expressed to CBS News during an interview at his home in Princeton, Texas. He emphasized the distressing nature of pleading with his own country to keep his family intact.
Trujillo’s wife, Arelys Barahona-Martinez from Honduras, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a routine check-in that had previously gone without incident. Her arrest on June 10 was unexpected. Despite having no criminal record, she faces deportation due to illegal U.S. entries in 2005 and 2018, compounded by a deportation order from 2005.
Currently held in an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas, Barahona-Martinez described her experience as “truly hell” and pleaded to be reunited with her family. Her potential path to U.S. permanent residency relies on her marriage to Trujillo and requires convincing an immigration judge to reopen her case. She must also seek cancellation of her illegal entries through parole-in-place, a program protecting military families.
The Trump administration’s deportation strategy prioritizes individuals with existing deportation orders, complicating Barahona-Martinez’s chances of staying with her family during the legal process.
Trujillo and Barahona-Martinez met in 2019, a year after she returned to the U.S. Her decision to re-enter was driven by threats to her son, Idben, from gangs in Honduras and his need for medical treatment for neurofibromatosis, a condition leading to tumor growth. Idben, now living with Trujillo, noted the void felt without his mother, crediting her with saving his life.
Leave a Reply