‘He’s our backbone’: Mother and wife fighting to bring her husband home from a immigration facility

By Ka’Tani Gouch

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    ROGERS, Arkansas (KHBS) — A Benton County mother is speaking out after her husband was unexpectedly detained during a routine immigration appointment in April.

Sophy Vega says she and her husband, Juan Martinez, walked into the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services building for what they thought would be the first step in securing Juan’s legal residency. Instead, she left alone.

The couple had gone in to complete an I-130 form as part of a marriage-based immigration petition. Vega, a U.S. citizen, and Martinez, who is originally from Honduras, has lived and worked in the U.S. for over a decade, were hoping for a smooth process.

“We went to the Fort Smith immigration office to do sort of a routine interview for their marriage-based immigration petition,” Aaron Cash, the family’s attorney, said. “Sofia’s a US citizen and Juan is an immigrant, and so this is just part of that process.”

Cash explained that Martinez had an old deportation order linked to a paperwork issue years ago when he first sought asylum in New York—an order he was unaware of.

“We were allowed to leave the building, and then once we were outside the building, they started yelling at us, telling us to go back inside, and once we went inside, is when my husband got detained,” the wife said.

The couple has since tried to reopen the case, but a judge denied their request. That means Juan is now facing deportation to Honduras.

Vega, pregnant and raising their three young children, says the emotional toll is growing. “We did go see him in Louisiana once, and he had been there only for, like, maybe two, three weeks, tops, and she already was like, you know, ‘who is this?'” Vega said. “It was sad to see. I can’t imagine, you know, like, how they’ll be if they don’t see him for a period of time.”

Vega also mentioned that, as a stay at home mom, Martinez was their financial support. She says she’s trying to keep the family afloat while he’s away.

“It’s hard to be okay when you don’t have that support and you’ve had this whole time and it’s just taken away from you,” Vega said.

If deported, Cash says they plan to file waivers through the U.S. Embassy in Honduras in hopes of bringing Juan back legally.

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