SAN DIEGO (AP) — The father of a Marine who was arrested by immigration authorities when visiting his pregnant daughter at Camp Pendleton has a criminal record that includes charges of domestic violence and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
Esteban Rios was deported to Mexico in 1999, removed from the United States again in 2005 and ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2020 after entering the country illegally a third time, the department said.
The statement was the first detailed account that Homeland Security provided since the Marine, Steve Rios, said last week that his father was detained after visiting the Southern California military base, released with ankle monitors and detained again when reporting days later to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office, as ordered.
Homeland Security initially did not provide details when asked several times by The Associated Press on Tuesday for information on any criminal record Esteban Rios had, saying only that “criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.” The department said it had no other information to release.
On Thursday — one day after AP published a story on Esteban Rios, and two days after it sought details from the department — DHS released the detailed account of his criminal record. The department also accused the AP of having “deliberately obscured the facts,” despite the agency having not provided AP with the information it accused the news organization of obscuring.
Steve Rios of Oceanside, California, told a San Diego-based media outlet that his parents inspired him to enlist in the Marines. He said they came to the U.S. from Mexico more than 30 years ago and have washed cars and cleaned houses for his whole life.
“It was just making them proud, right? I’ve seen all the struggles they’ve gone through,” Steve Rios told the TV station. “The least I could do, right, and serve this country and try to, you know, put some time in.”
Steve Rios said he and his parents were picking up his younger sister and her husband, who is also a Marine, at Pendleton on Sept. 28, as they have done that every weekend for the past few months while she is expecting her first child. After stopping at the gate, ICE officials arrived to detain both parents, later releasing them with ankle monitors. He said his father was deported Oct. 10.
The Rios family told the station the parents had no criminal record, had pending green card applications sponsored by Steve and authorization to work.
In response to inquiries from AP, Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, issued a statement Tuesday that read, “Under President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Kristi) Noem, if you break the law — including domestic violence and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
The statement did not say anything about Esteban Rios, including whether he was arrested or charged with any crime or if he had any immigration history.
When AP followed up to ask if Esteban Rios and his wife had criminal histories, Luis Alani, a communications strategist at ICE, wrote, “By statute, ICE has no information on these aliens. To clarify, there is no information we can release.”
Initial Associated Press report below
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Parents of a U.S. Marine were detained by federal immigration officials and one of them was later deported after visiting family members at Camp Pendleton, a case that has drawn attention to how the government’s immigration crackdown is touching military families.
Steve Rios, a Marine from Oceanside, California, told a San Diego-based media outlet that his parents, Esteban Rios and Luisa Rodriguez, were taken into custody late last month while picking up his pregnant sister, Ashley Rios, and her husband, who is also a Marine, at the base.
The couple, who came to the United States from Mexico three decades ago and had pending green card applications, were stopped by immigration agents and later released with ankle monitors, Steve Rios said. At a later check-in with federal immigration officials, they were detained and taken into custody, he said.
Esteban Rios, who had been wearing a hat and shirt that read “Proud Dad of a U.S. Marine,” was deported on Friday, his son said.
“He said, ‘Yeah, this is my lucky shirt, so we’ll be fine,’” Rios recalled his father saying.
Marine Corps recruiters have long promoted enlistment as a path to stability for families without legal immigration status, but experts say those assurances have eroded as federal authorities have moved to enforce existing laws more strictly.
The Marine Corps previously told The Associated Press that recruiters have been informed they are “not the proper authority” to “imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement to The Associated Press that people who break the law would face consequences.
Requests for additional information on Wednesday were not immediately returned. Messages seeking additional comment were sent to the contact addresses and telephone numbers listed for the Rios family.
The episode comes as the Trump administration pursues an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, which has at times ensnared the relatives of military members and veterans.
In June, a Louisiana Marine veteran said immigration authorities detained his wife even though she was still nursing their 3-month-old daughter.
And in July, a U.S. Army veteran who was born and raised in California was arrested during an immigration raid at a marijuana farm where he worked in security. George Retes, 25, was detained for three days at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, then released without being charged.
