Navy Sailor's Father Arrested by Border Patrol While He Was Deployed on USS Lincoln

KEY WEST, Fla. —

A U.S. Navy sailor serving aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln says he learned his father had been arrested by federal immigration officials while he was nine months into a deployment in the Middle East, according to CBS News and Fortune.

Joshua Aviles wrote in a Facebook post over the weekend that he got the call while still aboard the carrier. "I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE," he wrote, adding that his father is "a hardworking, humble man who is always willing to help anyone if he can." He said the news left him unsure how he could keep working 12-hour shifts at sea knowing his father might be "treated like a criminal," CBS News reported.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to CBS News that Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, 48, a native of Nicaragua, was arrested by Border Patrol agents during a traffic stop in Key West, Florida, on Saturday. The department said he had entered the country illegally and remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while the government pursues his deportation. DHS did not dispute that Aviles has no criminal record but said in a statement Sunday that "having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws" and that the administration "does not pick and choose which laws to enforce."

Aviles' wife, Argelia Aviles, 47, told Fortune her husband was arrested after leaving their house to take his car to a mechanic. She said he works as a handyman in Key West, holds a work permit and has lived in the United States for 19 years. "He dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home," she said. "He is a good father. He loves his children with all his soul."

A pattern touching military families

Fortune reported that immigration arrests of parents and spouses of active-duty service members, once rare, have grown more common since the Trump administration rolled back earlier limits on such arrests as part of its broader deportation effort. The Associated Press has found at least dozens of cases involving military family members, with six people deported and one who left the country voluntarily, according to Fortune. One federal program, known as military parole-in-place, lets some spouses, children and parents of service members apply for legal status from inside the country, though not everyone qualifies.

A carrier already under scrutiny

The USS Abraham Lincoln has drawn attention for an unusually long deployment that set a record for continuous time at sea, with reports of food shortages and strain on the roughly 5,000 sailors aboard, according to Fortune. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said conditions on the ship were "completely misrepresented." The carrier left the Middle East last week and is heading back to the United States, a trip CBS News said could take several weeks. Aviles' sister, Katherine Delgado, 28, told Fortune her brother is expected home soon but "gonna come home without his father."