A US Marine said his father was deported after both his parents were detained last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while at Camp Pendleton in California.
Steve Rios told NBC 7 that his parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, were picking up his pregnant younger sister, Ashley, and her husband, who is also a Marine, at the enormous West Coast base on Sept. 28 — just like they had done every weekend for the past few months while expecting their first child.
But this time, Rios said, his parents were stopped at the gate and held for ICE agents, who detained them.
They were released a few hours later with ankle monitors and picked up by their son, who said they were instructed to check in with the agency later that week.
When Rios drove them to their check-in appointment a few days later, he said they waited for hours before being detained again.
“I just kept on looking at my parents. I didn’t know if it would be the last time I’d see them,” the young Marine said.
Rios shared that his father was wearing a red shirt and a white hat, both of which said “Proud dad of a US Marine,” when he was taken away and deported by ICE agents.
“He said, ‘Yeah, this is my lucky shirt, so we’ll be fine,’” Rios recalled.
He said he spoke briefly to his father on the phone the day after the second detention, and was told his parents were being held in the basement of the federal building that houses ICE and immigration court.
They were later transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center, NBC 7 reported.
While his father was deported after being detained by ICE, it’s unclear if his mother suffered the same fate.
Rios, who said he joined the Corps right out of high school to make his parents proud and is currently in the reserves after spending four years on active duty, mentioned that the couple came to the US from Mexico 30 years ago.
He described them as hardworking, law-abiding members of their community with no criminal record, who washed cars and cleaned houses to get by.
They were also waiting for green cards and work visas that he sponsored when they were detained.
“It was just making them proud, right? I’ve seen all the struggles they’ve gone through,” Rios said. “The least I could do, right, and serve this country and try to, you know, put some time in. I don’t think amounts to what they’ve done.”
He said the experience scared him because it was something he had worried about happening his whole life.
Ashley, his younger sister, recalled the gut-wrenching phone call she received from her brother when their parents were first detained at Camp Pendleton’s front gate.
“My brother texted me that they got stopped. And as soon as I heard that, I just started bawling,” she said, fighting back tears.
Now expecting her first child, Ashley said the ordeal has hit even harder.
“It’s just hard because you just want to hear your parents’ voices and know everything will be OK,” she said. “I’d always want my mom in that delivery room and everything, so it’s hard not to think about them.”
The siblings said they’re uncertain what will happen next, but their faith is helping them stay strong.
“They might get sent back. They might not,” Rios said. “The only person that knows is up there.”
A spokesperson for ICE told NBC 7 that the couple was detained, “as part of its routine operations, ICE arrests aliens who commit crimes and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws.”
“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,” the statement continued.
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