Retired Staff Sgt. Wilmer Trujillo is currently navigating a situation where his wife, 40-year-old Arelys Barahona-Martinez, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Wednesday. She was taken into custody during what was supposed to be a standard, routine check-in appointment at an agency office in Dallas.
Trujillo, who served in the U.S. Army and the Texas National Guard for nearly 20 years, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, described the moment as he had accompanied his wife to the appointment. “To us, it was as a regular check-up day, we were always doing everything by the book,” Trujillo told the BBC. “We thought everything was fine, until an officer came out and said, ‘Your wife is not leaving today.'”
