The wife of an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant has been deported to Honduras, becoming the latest military family member caught up in President Donald Trump’s intensified immigration enforcement campaign.
Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, the wife of Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, was removed from the United States on Monday, August 24, according to her family and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Villafranca-Trejo, who was born in Honduras, entered the United States in 2016 at the age of 18. She has no known criminal record. DHS said she had received due process and had a final removal order dating back to 2017 after she failed to appear at an immigration hearing.
However, her husband said she was unaware of the hearing and did not realize a deportation order had been issued until they began pursuing legal status for her after their marriage in 2022.
Turcios Juarez, who became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after joining the Army in 2022, had been working to regularize his wife’s immigration status. Her attorney said a motion to reopen her case was denied in May, while an appeal before the Board of Immigration Appeals was still pending. She had also been waiting for a decision on an application for military parole-in-place, a program that can allow immediate family members of U.S. service members to remain in the country while seeking permanent residency.
ICE detained Villafranca-Trejo on July 11 outside a Walmart near Fort Bliss, Texas, where her husband is stationed. Their six-year-old daughter was reportedly present when immigration officers took her into custody.
Her deportation has left Turcios Juarez facing the challenge of continuing his military duties while caring for their young daughter and dealing with the separation from his wife.
The case has drawn attention because Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty U.S. military service member deported under the Trump administration’s current immigration crackdown. The Associated Press has also identified more than 50 cases in which immediate relatives of U.S. troops have been placed in immigration detention since protections for military families were rolled back.
The deportation has also prompted concern from lawmakers and immigration advocates, who argue that increased immigration enforcement is creating serious consequences for military families. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar has initiated a congressional inquiry into the case.
DHS, however, maintains that Villafranca-Trejo’s removal was carried out in accordance with U.S. immigration law and that she had received due process.
The case is now highlighting a growing debate in the United States over how immigration enforcement should be handled when it involves the spouses and immediate family members of active-duty military personnel.
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