Arizona man deported to the wrong country is now missing, wife says

KINGMAN, AZ (AZFamily) — There are more and more reports nationwide of families claiming their loved ones have been deported to countries they have no connection to, and now a Kingman family said that’s happening to them.

The northwestern Arizona family is now searching for answers after what they describe as a devastating mistake by immigration officials.

“He is my husband. I love him,” said Jessica Cuellar Portillo. “He’s my soulmate and you can’t help who you fall in love with no matter what country they’re from.”

Her husband, Miguel Cuellar Portillo, came to the United States illegally 19 years ago.

“We already knew it was going to happen because in 2012, we had a deportation order, and he never left. So we went in for I-130 interview and they put him in handcuffs,” Jessica explained.

She said he was going through the process of applying for citizenship when he was detained. He was held at the immigration detention center in Florence for a week, up until Aug. 21.

“One day, I just called. I checked his number to make sure he was still there in Florence, Arizona, and it disappeared,” Jessica said.

She was told his deportation paperwork listed El Salvador, but instead, he was left somewhere in Mexico, and now she says she can’t find him.

“He’s not on any of those migrant planes, and I know there’s a process to re-enter El Salvador. To be put back into El Salvador, and he wasn’t even going through that process. So it’s really frustrating to know that they actually put him in the country he doesn’t belong,” she said.

She’s called everyone she can think of, but no one can tell her where in Mexico he was taken.

“It’s terrifying. I’m not sleeping. I may sleep three hours a day because I’m trying to figure out what other ways I can try to find him, who else I can contact or call to find him,” she said.

Her fight now is to locate her husband and make sure he gets to the right country, the one he was supposed to be deported to all along. “It’s a betrayal. To me, I feel like it’s forced disappearance. They forced him to disappear,” Jessica stated.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not responded to our questions about why Miguel was deported to Mexico instead of El Salvador, but the feds tell Arizona’s Family they’re looking into it.

For now, his wife and the Salvadoran consulate continue searching, hoping he is found safe.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.