A Father’s Lifelong Fear
The fear and uncertainty he felt during the time he was taken from the military has stuck with him to this day.
Story by Nikole Salinas
Edited by Abigail Vela and Nina Alegre
- September 11, 2025
Note from the Editors: This article was written by one of the five fellows who participated in the 2025 Pluma Libre Journalism Fellowship. This year’s fellowship focused on developing stories and projects about local immigration and social issues.
The fear of being ripped away from your family and home has become an unfortunate reality for many in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). With increased efforts by the current government administration to demonize immigrants and present them as faceless criminals, local community members in the RGV are living in a time of extreme uncertainty.
For some, these anxieties may not be a new occurrence but rather a longstanding obstacle in their lives. This has been the case for local Valley resident and Mexican immigrant, Jorge Salinas Leal (he/him).
A Struggle to Provide
In 1996, Salinas Leal was 19 years old and found himself a new father to a baby boy. It was summer, and at this time, Salinas Leal had just returned to the Valley after driving down from Minnesota. He and his family had been traveling up north every summer for work ever since he was two years old. The need to work hard to survive had been ingrained in Salinas Leal for as long as he could remember.
With the pressure of needing to support his new child and family, Salinas Leal turned to the military, which eagerly welcomed him with open arms. It is not uncommon for individuals from low-income backgrounds to seek opportunities for financial security through enlistment.
According to Holly Straut-Eppsteiner, an immigration policy analyst, in her report, Foreign Nationals in the U.S. Armed Forces: Immigration Issues, states: “As of February 2024, more than 40,000 foreign nationals were serving in active and reserve components of the Armed Forces. An estimated additional 115,000 foreign nationals residing in the United States are veterans who have previously served on active duty.”
Pursuing an opportunity for a better life was not an unfamiliar concept to Salinas Leal. Although he had reservations at the time about leaving his newborn son and family behind.
“I figured that was a good way to either get into college and hopefully be able to get a career. Obviously, it didn’t happen that way,” said Salinas Leal.
The night before he was set to depart for the military, an unknown and dubious individual approached Salinas Leal while he was out with friends. They presented him with an opportunity for quick cash. The individual, later revealed to be an undercover cop, sought to purchase marijuana from Salinas Leal.
“I was just like, okay, well, I didn’t have anything, but I knew somebody that knew somebody that knew somebody, you know, the typical thing,” Salinas Leal explained. He described his thought process as such: “If I make the money that I was supposedly going to make, I was like, ‘Well, I won’t have to go to the army.’”
“It was a choice I made, it was a wrong choice,” he added.
That same night, he was arrested and held for several days before being released. His recruiter contacted him, questioning where he had been. “I explained the situation to her, and she’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re going to take care of it, we’re going to go ahead and fix it. You’re going to go to the army anyway.’ So, I went to the army,” said Salinas Leal.
Salinas Leal was stationed in North Carolina as an operations specialist for nearly two years before a warrant for his arrest was presented to his sergeant. After recounting the initial incident to the military police, they took him into custody. Still dressed in his military attire and handcuffed from both his hands and ankles “like an animal,” he was driven down to Brownsville from North Carolina in a van.
Within a week, Salinas Leal was released after the judge ruled the case as “deferred adjudication” with a 10-year probation. Deferred adjudication, as per Hidalgo County’s website, is “a type of community supervision” where an individual’s charge will be dismissed with no record of conviction if they meet the conditions set by the court within a certain timeframe.
Salinas Leal completed the 10-year probation period, all while continuing to work and support his family. Within this time frame, he became the father of two more children and worked his way through several different career paths before settling into a position in car sales for 22 years.
Tied to a Past Mistake
Now, 49 years old, Salinas Leal has continued to provide for his family, put his children through school, and become a homeowner. All the while, the fear and uncertainty he felt during the time he was taken from the military has stuck with him to this day. Especially following another incident that occurred in 2022.
What was supposed to be a short four-day vacation taken on a whim turned into a three-month-long nightmare for Salinas Leal. On his arrival back from Cancun, Mexico, Salinas Leal was detained at the Harlingen airport. The security checked his residence and immigration papers, noting the charge from 1996. Salinas Leal explained the charge had already been taken care of, but they insisted they still needed to take him in.
“Supposedly, I wasn’t given permission to return to the United States,” Salinas Leal explained, “I was like ‘What?’ I’ve been in the United States since 1978. I have my residency card, it’s current, it’s right here.” Despite his up-to-date documents, they still detained him and sent him to the Immigration Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas. He was held there for nearly three months, originally being taken in early July and eventually released in early September.
Salinas Leal described his time at the detainment center as “crazy” and “stressful”. He said he was held in a large cell with between “60-80 beds and [with] around 70-80 immigrants being held there at once,” with showers and toilets in the same cell as well. COVID-19 was prominent at the time, and due to this, Salinas Leal said they were held in the cell 24/7 for the first month. “Nobody was able to go see you, nobody was able to go by and visit,” he added.
After his family hired an attorney, Salinas Leal was released on bond. His court hearing was initially scheduled for January 2023 but has been pushed back several times, and is now set for 2026. Like many other immigrants today, Salinas Leal has been instilled with fear over whether the government will suddenly decide to take him away from his family once more. He shared how the incidents and current political climate have changed his outlook.
“I think, just driving, you’re more cautious, you’re scared. I don’t know what could go ahead and trigger the situation again. I haven’t even gone out of the Valley because I’m afraid. Are they going to stop me again? Are they going to go ahead and say, ‘Hey, well, you’re coming with us’ again?”
With the president of the U.S. enacting executive orders to “protect” the American people from “invasion”, a dangerous and unsafe environment is continuing to be pushed against immigrants in the U.S., and harmful stereotypes and rhetoric are being spread without care for fundamental human rights. People, like Salinas Leal, who have lived their entire lives in the U.S., are being told they pose a “threat” to the American way of life. All the while, criminal activity and misdeeds against democracy are conducted within the country by government officials themselves.
Texas Stands with Immigrants: Community Solidarity
Community efforts from local groups, such as Bloom RGV and La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), as well as national organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are collaborating to provide support and resources for immigrants and their families. There is also the RGV Rapid Response Network Hotline, which provides updates and news regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sightings.
No matter your immigration status, there are certain rights and protections in place under the U.S. Constitution for you. Carrying a Know Your Rights card with you can help you familiarize yourself with ways to exercise those rights.
You can print your own set of Know Your Rights cards by ordering your own. For specific individual situations, you can use the National Immigration Legal Services Directory from the Immigration Advocates Network.
Introducing our new series: In The Spotlight: Más Que Papeles. This series highlights the stories of people who arrived in the Rio Grande Valley seeking safety and a better life beyond immigration status. Whether folks are here for the long haul or temporarily, we want to share your 956 experience! We want to show the varied realities of how our neighbors, friends and family are impacted by and face the immigration system. Whether you are an asylum seeker, a DACA recipient, an international student, an aspiring citizen, or not, share your story with us to pitches@truchargv.com.
