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U.S. Navy sailor Joshua Aviles said he learned his father was arrested by federal immigration officials while on his ninth month aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier that has been at the center of reports of mental health challenges and subpar conditions faced by service members.
“I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE. If you know my dad, you know he is a hardworking, humble man who is always willing to help anyone if he can,” Aviles wrote in a Facebook post this weekend.
“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,” he added.
Asked by CBS News about the arrest, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, a native of Nicaragua, was arrested by Border Patrol during a traffic stop in Key West, Florida, on Saturday, saying he entered the U.S. illegally. The department said Aviles remained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, facing deportation proceedings.
DHS did not dispute the family’s statements that Aviles lacks a criminal record, but said that “(h)aving a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws.”
“We are simply enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” the department said in a statement Sunday. “This Administration does not pick and choose which laws to enforce.”
Katty Delgado, Joshua Aviles’ half-sister, told CBS News that her stepfather was on his way to the mechanic when he was arrested by Border Patrol. She said he’s been living in the U.S. for roughly 20 years and that he has a pending immigration application to obtain legal status.
She said communication with her half-brother has been “on and off” since he’s still deployed overseas, but she said he’s told her he’s having trouble sleeping and eating.
“His mind is focused now on ‘Where is my dad? And how is he doing?'” she said.
Aviles’ arrest is the latest immigration enforcement operation to affect a U.S. military family over the past year and a half.
Historically rare, immigration arrests of military spouses and parents have become more common under the second Trump administration, which rescinded prior limits on arrests by ICE and Border Patrol as part of its mass deportation campaign.
DHS officials have consistently said anyone in the country illegally is vulnerable to being arrested and processed for deportation, even in cases involving military families.
In his Facebook post, Aviles noted the USS Lincoln’s extended deployment in the Middle East.
“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,” he wrote.
The aircraft carrier and its roughly 5,000 crew members left the Middle East last week to head back to the U.S., a journey that could take several weeks.
