US Marine Steve Rios said his father was deported after both his parents were detained last month by ICE while at Camp Pendleton, CA. Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez were picking up his pregnant younger sister, Ashley, and her husband, who is also a US Marine, at the enormous West Coast base on 28 Sep, just like they had done every weekend for the past few months while expecting their first grandchild. But this time his parents were stopped at the gate and held for ICE agents, who then detained them. "I just kept on looking at my parents. I didn't know if it would be the last time I'd see them," the young Marine said. Rios shared that his father was wearing a red shirt and a white hat, both of which said "Proud Dad of a US Marine," when he was taken away and deported by ICE agents. "He said, Yeah, this is my lucky shirt, so we'll be fine,'" Rios recalled.
The Marine said he spoke briefly to his father on the phone and was told his parents were being held in the basement of the federal building that houses ICE and immigration court. They were later transferred to the Otay Mesa Detention Center. While his father was deported, it's unclear if his mother will suffer the same fate. Steve Rios joined the USMC right out of high school to make his parents proud and is currently in the USMCR after spending four years on active duty. His parents came to the US from Mexico 30 years ago. Government shutdown or not, ICE continues to remorselessly destroy families, like this tragic case of a US Marine losing his father and possibly mother.
