ICE detains Army sergeant's wife as 6-year-old daughter watches mother handcuffed

When masked agents pounded on the windows of the family vehicle, Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez’s six-year-old daughter started crying.

She sat, buckled into her car seat, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials ordered the windows rolled down and announced they would be detaining Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo — the child’s mother and Turcios’s wife — for a missed court appearance. The child watched as the figures handcuffed her mother.

“It took me a minute to realize what was going on — my heart just dropped,” Turcios told Military Times. “It was very hard looking at my daughter crying because of what was going on and not being able to do something and keep my family together.”

The Detention

On July 11, ICE detained Villafranca Trejo as the family drove home after a trip to Walmart. Turcios said he observed a vehicle following his family out of their military housing subdivision on the way to the store. When the family left Walmart, the vehicle reappeared.

He was pulled over shortly after, the sergeant said, as unmarked vehicles boxed in the family’s Dodge Durango.

“All I was trying to do was stay calm because my daughter was watching everything that was going on and that was already a lot for her,” he said more than a month after his wife was detained. “She’s only six, and she was going through a lot. She’s still going through a lot right now.”

Family Background

Turcios, stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, has been legally married to Villafranca Trejo since August 2022, according to the couple’s Louisiana marriage certificate. His wife is registered as his dependent in the Army’s personnel system, along with her son and the daughter the couple share. Prior to her detention, the family of four was preparing for a military move to an Oklahoma base where Turcios was set to be stationed.

Conditions at Detention Center

Instead of preparing to report to his new unit, Turcios said he visited his wife at Camp East Montana, an immigration detention center located on the Fort Bliss grounds.

A July report published by Human Rights Watch in collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union found that detainees at the camp were subjected to:

• Excessive use of force
• Medical neglect
• Barriers to legal assistance
• “Conditions of confinement that amounted to enforced disappearance”

Turcios said his wife had experienced an infection. He told Military Times she was concerned the underwear she had been given was not clean. She also said she had to wear the same clothes for about a week. Human Rights Watch reported accounts of laundry at the facility being returned irregularly and dirty.

Lack of Communication

As of publication, Villafranca Trejo had not received updates on her status.

“They don’t give us any updates on her case. They’re completely silent from their part — like nobody at all,” he said. “They don’t communicate with my lawyer. They don’t communicate with my wife. They don’t communicate with me. We don’t know what’s going on.”

Attempted Deportation

After his Monday visit last week, authorities tried to deport his wife. They woke her up in the middle of the night, he said, and took her to the airport. Turcios said Villafranca Trejo had a panic attack trying to explain that her appeal was in process and her husband was in the military.

Turcios received a call in the early morning hours asking him to verify her account. Another call came later in the morning saying that authorities had verified his wife’s status and she would be returned to the detention camp.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed that on Aug. 17, Villafranca Trejo “was removed from her scheduled deportation flight after a legal impediment developed.”

ICE Statement

In response to questions about her July apprehension, the department responded that on the date in question, “ICE conducted a targeted immigration enforcement operation to arrest Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo, an illegal alien from Honduras. Villafranca Trejo illegally entered the United States in 2016 and was released into the country under the Obama administration.”