The wife of an active-duty U.S. soldier has been deported to Honduras, her home country, in the latest case of a military family member caught up in the Trump administration's aggressive immigration enforcement. Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, married to Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez and mother of their 6-year-old daughter, was removed Monday, according to multiple reports.
Villafranca-Trejo fled Honduras in 2016 due to rampant violent crime, her husband said. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated she "received due process" before her removal, but her case has reignited concerns about the administration's treatment of military families.
She is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty service member to be deported, with more than 50 immediate relatives of troops, sailors, and airmen currently in federal immigration detention, according to The Associated Press. During President Trump's first term, such family members were generally shielded from deportation, but those protections were rolled back in his second term.
Turcios Juarez told ABC News that ICE officers detained his wife on July 11 outside a Walmart in Fort Bliss, Texas, in front of their daughter. He has since told the AP that her absence has made it difficult to balance his military duties and parenting. He has had to skip morning training to take his daughter to school and has postponed a planned assignment to another base.
"I don't know if I will be able to continue with this," Turcios Juarez told the AP. "I have to make a plan to make sure I can still fulfill my military responsibilities — but also take care of my family."
Villafranca-Trejo entered the U.S. at age 18 with no known criminal record. DHS says an immigration judge issued a final removal order in 2017 after she failed to appear at a hearing. Her husband contends she never received notice of that hearing and only learned of the order in 2022, when the couple applied for her green card after marrying.
Turcios Juarez, also originally from Honduras, enlisted in 2022 and became a U.S. citizen in 2024. The couple had been waiting about a year for a decision on Villafranca-Trejo's application for military parole-in-place, a program that allows immediate family of U.S. service members to stay in the country while pursuing a green card.
"We were following the rules, we did everything we could on our side to fix this problem," Turcios Juarez told the AP.
The deportation comes as a Navy sailor aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln posted on social media that his father had been detained by immigration authorities while he was deployed. Joshua Aviles, a sailor, said his father Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, had a driver's license, Social Security card, and work permit, and was awaiting green card approval.
"We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting," Aviles wrote. "This is heartbreaking for me. I don't know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal. My dad's only 'crime' was coming to this country to give my siblings and me a better life."
The situation has drawn attention amid broader strains in U.S.-Canada relations and ongoing political battles over immigration policy. Critics argue the administration's enforcement actions are undermining military readiness and morale, while supporters maintain that immigration laws must be applied uniformly.
