A U.S. Marine says his father was deported after both his parents were detained last month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while at Camp Pendleton, California.
Steve Rios told NBC 7 that on September 28, his parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, were at the base to pick up his pregnant younger sister, Ashley, and her husband, who is also a Marine—just as they had done every weekend in recent months while awaiting the birth of their first child.
But this time, Rios said, his parents were stopped at the gate and held for ICE agents. 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 his parents to that appointment, 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,” he recalled.
Rios described his father wearing a red shirt and white hat, both emblazoned with “Proud dad of a US Marine,” when he was taken away and later deported. “He said, ‘Yeah, this is my lucky shirt, so we’ll be fine,’” Rios said. He spoke briefly with his father the day after the second detention, learning that his parents were being held in the basement of the federal building housing ICE and immigration court. They were later transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center.
While his father was deported, it remains unclear if his mother faced the same outcome.
Rios, who joined the Marines right out of high school and now serves in the reserves after four years on active duty, said his parents came to the U.S. from Mexico 30 years ago. He described them as hardworking, law-abiding members of their community who had no criminal record and made a living washing cars and cleaning houses. The couple was also awaiting green cards and work visas that Rios sponsored.
“It was just making them proud, right? I’ve seen all the struggles they’ve gone through,” he 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.”
Rios said the ordeal frightened him, something he had worried about his whole life. His sister Ashley recalled the emotional phone call from her brother when their parents were first detained at Camp Pendleton.
“My brother texted me that they got stopped. And as soon as I heard that, I just started bawling,” she said. Now expecting her first child, Ashley said the situation has been especially difficult. “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 family says they are unsure what will happen next but remain hopeful. “They might get sent back. They might not,” Rios said. “The only person that knows is up there.”
An ICE spokesperson 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.” The statement added that “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.”