US Army sergeant's wife deported to Honduras amid immigration crackdown

The wife of a U.S. Army sergeant has been deported to Honduras, highlighting the impact of the Trump administration's immigration policies on military families. Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo was removed from the United States on Monday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed.

Army Sergeant Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez told ABC News that his wife, who is the mother of their 6-year-old daughter, was deported. Villafranca-Trejo is at least the seventh spouse or parent of an active-duty U.S. military service member to be deported under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, according to an Associated Press tally.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Villafranca-Trejo on July 11 during what the DHS described as a "targeted immigration enforcement operation." The DHS stated she received due process. Sergeant Turcios Juarez previously said ICE officers detained his wife outside a Walmart in July as their daughter watched. He added that his wife left Honduras in 2016 due to violent crime and that the DHS alleged she entered the U.S. illegally.

Turcios Juarez became a U.S. citizen in 2024 after a nine-month deployment to the Middle East. He said he had begun pursuing citizenship for his wife, hoping his military service would help expedite her naturalization. The report also notes that the immigrant father of a U.S. sailor on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier was recently taken into federal immigration custody.

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was removed from the United States