EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The attorney for a U.S. Army Sergeant, whose wife was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during an appointment at an immigration office in El Paso, told KTSM on Wednesday, April 22, that ICE told her she is going to be deported to Mexico.Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano asked ICE agents why they were taking his wife, Deisy Rivera Ortega. Serrano said he was only told to get an attorney last week.Courtesy of Sgt. 1st Class Jose Serrano“The ICE agent that have tried her case, they told her that they’re going to deport her to Mexico,” Serrano said. “That was for at least two days, every time that she spoke with me (she) was crying.” Serrano, who has served for 27 years, said he and his attorney still do not know why his wife was detained. During their immigration appointment, Serrano said he and his wife gave an interviewer their military ID’s before being met by ICE agents.“Since 2017, she’s had a work permit granted,” Serrano said. “Every year she went to her fingerprint appointment with immigration until 2024 that she (was) granted a work permit for five years.”Serrano said his wife works on Fort Bliss and the couple have lived in the area since 2024. The pair married in 2022 in New York, he added.Both Serrano and Rivera Ortega’s family, who live in El Salvador, are concerned she will be sent to Mexico where she has no friends or family.“I’m not allowed to go to Mexico because it’s a general order from the Army,” Serrano said.A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Rivera Ortega is a “criminal illegal alien.”“Rivera Ortega entered the U.S. in 2016 near Rio Grande Valley, Texas, and was released on bond,” the statement reads. “She received full due process, and an immigration judge issued her a final order of removal on December 12, 2019. Work authorization does not confer any legal status to be in the country.”But her attorney Matthew Kozik said she has protections and has filed legal action to prevent her removal from El Paso and for her release.“Think about it, she is of such a national security risk that she has a military spouse ID, works at Fort Bliss and has continued to receive work authorization,” he said. “So, it shows the type of lack of record in the security risk anybody thinks she was.”Serrano, who is from Puerto Rico, said he can talk to his wife for a few minutes each day by paying for phone service from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement El Paso Processing Center on Montana Avenue. And, he was able to visit her for nearly an hour. “What she told me every day, ‘This is something that God has for me,'” Serrano reflected about his wife’s faith.He said he suffers from PTSD and depression. And, even with treatment, he is struggling to sleep worrying about his wife.“After seven o’clock, when I don’t have (anybody) next to me, it’s thinking, thinking, walking in the house, looking for information,” he said. “When this happened, even with the medication, I am (only) able to sleep two hours a day.”On Thursday, Kozik informed KTSM 9 News that Ortega is going to be deported to Mexico, after they thought she’d be released from ICE and reunite with her husband. Kozik said she is being deported despite not receiving a “credible fear” interview or a formal notice of removal.The attorney is asking for a federal court to keep her in El Paso while her case is being reviewed.Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.