Wilmer Trujillo, a retired U.S. Army and Texas National Guard veteran, is urging federal immigration officials to release his wife, Arelys Barahona-Martinez, who is facing deportation to Honduras. Barahona-Martinez was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a check-in appointment in Dallas on June 10. Trujillo, who served for approximately 20 years and was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, expressed his distress over the situation, stating that it is difficult for him to understand why his family is being separated.
Barahona-Martinez, 40, and Trujillo married in 2020 and live in Princeton, Texas, with Trujillo's daughters and Barahona-Martinez's son, who is a U.S. citizen with a medical condition. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Barahona-Martinez entered the U.S. illegally and has a deportation order from 2005. Her immigration lawyer, Mark Shmueli, noted that she does not have a criminal record and was unaware of the hearing that led to her deportation order.
Barahona-Martinez had previously crossed the border illegally in 2005 and returned to Honduras in 2006. She re-entered the U.S. in 2018, citing her son's medical needs and safety concerns due to gang recruitment in Honduras. Trujillo highlighted the increasing frequency of ICE detentions of military spouses and called for his wife's release, emphasizing that she should be allowed to continue her immigration case outside of detention. Shmueli plans to file a request to reopen her immigration case and apply for Parole-in-Place to protect her from deportation.