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The Trump administration has detained and is trying to deport the father of a sailor on the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose crew has suffered from a mental health crisis due to a lengthy deployment extended by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa on Sunday, as he was trying to leave his house to take his car to the mechanic, his wife told The Associated Press. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has confirmed his arrest, said that he will be held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody as the administration pursues deportation. Aviles has lived in the U.S. for 19 years.
The Trump administration claimed that they were simply enforcing the law, though Aviles’s son, Joshua Aviles, said in a post on Facebook that his family has “done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting.”
Joshua Aviles said that his father, who is originally from Nicaragua, has a driver’s license, Social Security card, and a work permit. He said that his father’s arrest is “heartbreaking” and is taking a severe mental toll as he continues his work.
“I’ve been deployed for over nine months, out at sea in the Middle East aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, fighting for a country that has given me everything,” said Joshua Aviles in his post.
As a result of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, Tthe USS Abraham Lincoln recently broke the record for the longest ever deployment at sea without a port call, in relation to Donald Trump’s war on Iran, and is expected to be relieved soon after media reports brought attention to its plight. Sailors and their families reported a dire mental health crisis onboard as reports emerged that several sailors had tried to jump overboard, along with reports of food shortages and unhygienic conditions.
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But the Trump administration has downplayed the reports. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that the sailors’ reports were “completely misrepresented.” Meanwhile, the Pentagon ordered two firings at one of the government-funded military publications that originally reported on the crisis last week.
“This is heartbreaking for me. I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal. My dad’s only ‘crime’ was coming to this country to give my siblings and me a better life,” Joshua Aviles said. “Dad, I don’t know where you are right now, but know that I am doing everything I can to bring you back home.”
“He dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home. He is a good father. He loves his children with all his soul,” said Luis Manuel Aviles Roa’s wife, Argelia Aviles.
In a statement defending the decision, DHS said: “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws.”
However, as a recruitment mechanism, the U.S. does offer special immigration-related benefits to people who enlist. Under a program known as Military Parole in Place, family members of active-duty service members and veterans are given a path to citizenship. The administration has tried to cut this program under its mass deportation campaign, however, and previously came under fire for its attempts to deport nearly 300 veterans and their family members during the first year of Trump’s second term.
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