Opinion: Trump’s Blitz on Military Families Derails Army Sergeant’s Life

Courtesy Sgt.

Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez Street signs mark Fort Bliss Family Homes as a gated community of military housing at the edge of the sprawling Army base in El Paso, Texas.

So, the ICE agents almost certainly knew they were following a military family as they trailed Army Sgt.

Hedar Leonel Turcios Juárez, his wife, and 6-year-old daughter from their home on the base to a nearby Walmart on July 11.

But since President Trump did away with decades-old immigration protections for family members of service members upon his return to the White House, the ICE agents apparently thought nothing of lying in wait on a military base to pounce on the family of an Army sergeant.

On the way to the store, Turcios chanced to see a white F-150 pickup truck behind them.

He saw it again in the parking lot after they had finished shopping and were starting back home.

He figured it belonged to a fellow soldier.

Then he heard a siren.

ICE had deported at least six spouses or parents of active duty U.S military service members in Trump’s second term.

The agents were about to make it seven.

“They pulled me over,” the 28-year-old soldier later told the Daily Beast.

“I thought it was a traffic stop.” The pickup and at least two other unmarked ICE vehicles closed in around Turcios’ car, which had his well-worn patrol cap on the dashboard, signaling that he is an active duty soldier.

Masked ICE agents nonetheless shouted orders and rapped loudly on the passenger-side window, where his 28-year-old wife, Cristy Maryori Villafranca-Trejo, was sitting.