Army Sergeant's Wife Deported to Honduras
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel support a deportation flight at Fort Bliss, Texas, Feb. 10, 2025. The image is illustrative and does not depict Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo’s deportation.
The wife of an active-duty Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bliss was deported to Honduras on Monday, leaving the soldier to care for their 6-year-old daughter while trying to continue his military career.
Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo was removed from the United States on Aug. 24, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed. Her husband, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, also confirmed that she had been sent to Honduras.
The deportation came more than a month after immigration officers detained Villafranca-Trejo on July 11 near Fort Bliss, Texas. Turcios Juarez has said their daughter was in the family vehicle and watched as her mother was taken into custody.
Since then, the sergeant has been trying to balance his Army responsibilities with caring for their daughter alone. He told the Associated Press that instead of attending morning training, he has been taking his daughter to first grade and has already postponed a planned assignment to another installation.
The situation has now left him questioning how he can continue serving while keeping his family together.
Turcios Juarez, who is originally from Honduras, enlisted in the Army in 2022 and became a U.S. citizen in 2024. He previously deployed for nine months and has said Villafranca-Trejo cared for their family while he was overseas.
The couple married in 2022.
Villafranca-Trejo entered the United States in 2016 at age 18 and was issued a final order of removal in 2017 after failing to appear for an immigration hearing, according to DHS.
Her husband has said she never received notice of that hearing and did not know a removal order had been issued until the couple later attempted to obtain legal permanent residency for her.
DHS said Villafranca-Trejo received “due process” before being deported.
Her attorney, however, told the Associated Press that an appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals remained pending. Villafranca-Trejo had also applied for military parole in place, an immigration program that can allow certain undocumented spouses, parents and children of U.S. service members to remain in the country while pursuing legal status.
Her motion to reopen the original immigration case had previously been denied.
The case is part of a broader issue affecting military families. The Associated Press has identified more than 50 cases in which immediate family members of U.S. troops have been placed in federal immigration detention during the current immigration crackdown. Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty service member to be deported.
Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas has also opened a congressional inquiry into Villafranca-Trejo’s case. Escobar visited her while she was being held at the Camp East Montana detention facility near Fort Bliss earlier this month.
For Turcios Juarez, the immediate concern is what happens to his family and his Army career now.
He has said he still wants to serve but does not know how he will manage his military responsibilities while raising his daughter without his wife.
“I love what I do,” he told the Associated Press. “I just don’t know how I am going to keep doing this.”
Sources: Department of Homeland Security statements; Associated Press; Reuters; ABC News; Military Times
(Source: OAF Nation)
