Army National Guard Sergeant Spends Over $3K to Bring Back Deported Husband

A Texas Army National Guard sergeant has spent in excess of $3,000 attempting to bring her deported husband back to the states, claiming that federal immigration agencies ignored her military status and husband’s citizenship attempts.

Sgt. Nataly Castro, 26, a seven-year veteran who lives in Houston, married her husband, Fredy, on April 9, 2023. Last November, he was deported around Thanksgiving to El Salvador during what she described as a pending family-based immigration case, despite what she claimed was U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) being privy to her military service and the couple’s ongoing legal status efforts.

Castro told Military.com that roughly seven months later, she has suffered “prolonged legal, financial, and emotional hardship that continues to impact my ability to serve and support my family.” The married couple, who have no children and met roughly six years ago, began the immigration process in 2023 right after their nuptials.

“We’ve been waiting for this process to just move forward,” Castro, an E-5, said. “It took us 2 1/2 years, but at that point he was already gone. We tried to do multiple inquiries with USCIS saying, ‘Hey, I’m in the military. Is there a way that he can stay here in the United States?’

“There was something called parole in place or expedited processing for military members, but that was something that for some reason we were never able to work out.”

Asked if she knew her husband was not a citizen when they met and later got married, Castro admitted she did know. He never applied for or received a green card, with Castro saying that he originally came into the United States with his mother as both sought asylum.

Military.com reached out for comment to ICE and USCIS.

Routine Appointment Goes Awry

Fredy was on his way to be deported on Nov. 20, 2025, following a routine appointment with ICE.

It was supposed to be routine, at least. Castro said that appointments usually involved a computer check to confirm an immigrant’s living situation, possibly leading to some follow-up questions on the case.

“But this time it was like, ‘You are being detained,” she said. “We let them know that he had an application in progress, that he was a dependent of a military member. And they said, ‘Oh yeah? We’re just enforcing the law at this moment.’ So, they took him, detained him for the next 72 hours.”

Fredy spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in a facility and then was transferred the following Monday to a detention center in Port Isabel, a few miles from South Padre Island and in proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I was able to see him one day,” Castro said. “And the next day I was coming back to Houston, and I was like, OK, I’m going to stay up and see him like before I go back home. He was no longer there. They just took him in the middle of the morning and sent him back to El Salvador.”

On Thanksgiving, Fredy called Castro and informed her of his whereabouts. The pair have been able to communicate since, usually through FaceTime or WhatsApp.

Legal Efforts Pile Up

The situation became compounded due to her military duties. Castro was deployed overseas between 2023 and 2024 as part of a mission to Egypt in support of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO).

“While I was overseas, we attempted to request a military expedite based on my active military service and family hardship. But the request was denied,” she said. “When I left for my overseas mission, we placed trust in our immigration attorney to properly handle our case and filings while I was serving abroad.

“However, when we later reviewed the timeline and case progress, we became concerned that there were significant delays and gaps in filings, including periods of several months without submissions being made.”

Other repeated issues she said they experienced included missed or delayed deadlines, limited communication, and a lack of clear guidance on available military-family immigration options. She said that in hindsight, it’s believed that additional military-related immigration relief options and programs may not have been fully explored or pursued on the couple’s behalf.

$3,000 and Counting: ‘Frustrating’

Once Fredy was deported, the legal immigration process became drastically more difficult.

“We are now forced into a much longer and more complicated immigration route through the National Visa Center (NVC) and consular processing abroad,” Castro said. “However, even after the approval of our case, USCIS failed to properly transfer our petition to the NVC so the process could continue.

“Instead, we were informed that we now must request a case transfer ourselves, which currently costs hundreds of dollars in government fees in addition to attorney expenses. We were also informed that this transfer process alone may take anywhere from 3 to 12 additional months before consular processing can even begin.”

That hardship doesn’t end there, she added. Her husband is now expected to file additional immigration waivers, including Form I-601 and Form I-212, which she said will add further delays, legal costs, uncertainty, and extensive processing times.

They have spent more than $3,000, with some forms costing $500 themselves just to submit. Attorneys review the forms, and one was paid to attend an immigration appointment.

“We bought a house together back in August, before the deportation happened,” she said. “Back then, we were able to split the expenses of the house. And now that I’m by myself, I have to cover all of that. I have to get another job just to cover the extra expenses, like the utility bill and mortgage.

“Also, now every month, I have to send him money to support his financials as well, to cover his food, his transportation, or anything that he needs like Wi-Fi, electrical bills, water.”

Castro was asked if going public with her husband’s case considering her military role was a risk. She said it’s worth it to be reunited and to exhaust all resources, media or otherwise.

“Every time that we talk to a lawyer or to nonprofit organizations, they’re always saying, ‘No, this is how it has to be’ or ‘No, there is no extra route because you’re in the military.’ Like, it doesn’t matter,” she said. “I have the feeling like something else can be done. It’s just like we haven’t reached out to the right people that can help us with the resources.”

She added: “We’re trying to do the legal route all these years, and it doesn’t really matter. It’s very frustrating how it’s taking us this long. We’ve seen real cases out there where people are going through the same place, through the same routes, no military background, no nothing—and they are even getting things expedited or faster than we do.”