SAN DIEGO — Parents of a U.S. Marine were detained by federal immigration officials and one of them was later deported after visiting family members at a California military base, a case that has drawn attention to how the government’s immigration crackdown is touching military families.
Steve Rios, a Marine from Oceanside, California, told NBC 7 San Diego that his parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, were taken into custody late last month while picking up his pregnant sister, Ashley Rios, and her husband, who is also a Marine, at Camp Pendleton.
The couple, who came to the United States from Mexico three decades ago and had pending green card applications, were stopped by immigration agents and later released with ankle monitors, Steve Rios said. At a later check-in with federal immigration officials, they were detained and taken into custody, he said.
Esteban Rios, who had been wearing a hat and shirt that read “Proud Dad of a U.S. Marine,” was deported on Friday, his son said.
“He said, ‘Yeah, this is my lucky shirt, so we’ll be fine,’” Rios recalled his father saying.
Marine Corps recruiters have long promoted enlistment as a path to stability for families without legal immigration status, but experts say those assurances have eroded as federal authorities have moved to enforce existing laws more strictly.
The Marine Corps previously told The Associated Press that recruiters have been informed they are “not the proper authority” to “imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to The Associated Press that people who break the law would face consequences.
Requests for additional information on Wednesday were not immediately returned. Messages seeking additional comment were sent to the contact addresses and telephone numbers listed for the Rios family.
In June, a Louisiana Marine veteran said immigration authorities detained his wife even though she was still nursing their 3-month-old daughter.
And in July, a U.S. Army veteran who was born and raised in California was arrested during an immigration raid at a marijuana farm where he worked in security. George Retes, 25, was detained for three days at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, then released without being charged.