The parents of a U.S. Marine in California were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month while en route to visit their pregnant daughter. The father was deported Friday, NBC News reported.
Steve Rios, a U.S. Marine and resident of Oceanside, was traveling with his parents to Camp Pendleton to visit his sister who, along with her husband who’s also a U.S. Marine, is expecting her first child. The trio was stopped at the base’s entrance, however, when ICE agents detained Rios’ parents, who have no criminal history and have pending green card applications.
“I just kept on looking at my parents,” Rios told NBC News. “I didn’t know if it would be the last time I’d see them.”
Rios immediately texted his sister, Ashley Rios, about the incident as it was taking place, the news of which saw her break down in tears.
“My brother texted me that they got stopped,” Ashley Rios said, speaking with NBC News. “And as soon as I heard that, I just started, like, bawling.”
Rios’ parents – Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico more than 30 years ago – were briefly released from ICE custody following their detention, though with ankle monitors and an order to check back in with ICE officials.
Wearing a shirt and hat that bore the phrase “Proud dad of a U.S. Marine,” Rios’ father, alongside Rios’ mother, made good on their pledge to check back in with ICE officials, only for the father to be deported on Friday and the mother detained indefinitely, according to the report.
“It’s just hard because you just want to hear, like, your parents’ voice, that everything will be OK,” Ashley Rios said, telling NBC News that she was worried about her parents missing the birth of her first child. “I’d always want, like, my mom in that delivery room and everything, so it’s just hard to not think about your parents there.”
An ICE spokesperson released a statement regarding Rios’ parents’ arrests and deportation, in which they made a soft acknowledgment that undocumented immigrants with no criminal history, outside of immigrating to the country illegally, were also the target of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.
“As part of its routine operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws,” the statement from ICE to NBC News reads. “All aliens in violation of U.S. immigration law may be subject to arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States, regardless of nationality.”
