{"id":460495,"date":"2026-09-11T12:08:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T12:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460495\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T12:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T12:08:17","slug":"deported-father-of-former-u-s-marine-returns-to-san-diego-following-court-order-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/460495\/","title":{"rendered":"Deported father of former U.S. Marine returns to San Diego following court order \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of a former U.S. Marine and longtime Oceanside resident reunited with his family in the U.S. on Thursday \u2014 two days after a San Diego federal judge ordered<\/a> his immediate return, nearly a year after he was deported to Mexico.<\/p>\n

Esteban R\u00edos, 57, walked back into the U.S. through the San Ysidro PedEast border crossing, where his oldest son, Steve, greeted him with a big hug and kiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt an emotion that I can\u2019t put into words,\u201d R\u00edos said as he set foot in San Diego again. \u201cI\u2019m happy to be back home.\u201d<\/p>\n

R\u00edos was arrested and then deported last year following a visit to his then-pregnant daughter at Camp Pendleton.<\/p>\n

\"EstebanEsteban R\u00edos embraces his wife, Luisa Rodriguez, after returning to the U.S. At left is R\u00edos\u2019 son, Steve R\u00edos, a former U.S. Marine. (Kristian Carreon \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

He and his wife, Luisa Rodr\u00edguez, were given ankle monitors and asked to return for a check-in appointment with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a later date. The couple was then arrested again, and R\u00edos was deported<\/a>, while Rodr\u00edguez was later released from custody.<\/p>\n

At the time, they both had pending U nonimmigrant status cases, which are granted to victims of certain crimes.<\/p>\n

In late July, R\u00edos filed a habeas corpus petition, alleging that his deportation violated his due process rights. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino granted the petition, ruling that R\u00edos must be restored to his previous immigration status and be \u201centitled to all the rights and benefits afforded to him pursuant to his deferred action as if his October 2025 removal never occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(I\u2019m) very relieved that we got this order that allowed for Mr. R\u00edos to return, and relieved that the return went relatively smoothly so he\u2019s on his way home with his family,\u201d said his attorney, Monika Langarica, deputy legal director at the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that this will help other people who find themselves in a similar situation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respond Thursday to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The federal agency claimed in October, after R\u00edos\u2019s deportation, that he had a criminal history. R\u00edos later said that he had been accused of domestic violence in the past, but the charges were dropped. In addition, he denied charges related to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, claiming that he had been mistaken for someone else in the past and that the charge was likely a similar mistake. He did acknowledge a previous deportation, and said he came back to be with his family.<\/p>\n

His wife filed a petition for a U visa following an attack she suffered years ago, which R\u00edos witnessed. The case is still pending, and R\u00edos is a derivative of it.<\/p>\n

Since the court ruling, the family has eagerly awaited R\u00edos\u2019 return. After his deportation, he lived in the Mexican state of Veracruz.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t sleep last night. I haven\u2019t eaten anything; I lost my appetite,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez, describing the hours before she reunited with her husband. \u201cAs soon as I saw him, I thought I was going to faint.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steve R\u00edos, a former U.S. Marine, expressed his nervousness during the more than two hours he waited outside the port of entry to embrace his father once more. \u201cI\u2019ve been stressed all morning,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he\u2019s finally here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esteban R\u00edos said that he never lost hope of coming back to his family. Now, he said, he can\u2019t wait to meet his grandson, whose birth he missed. \u201cI\u2019ve seen photos of him, but it\u2019s not the same as finally holding him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of a former U.S. Marine and longtime Oceanside resident reunited with his family in the U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1697,7,14,181,23,100,3054,3282,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-460495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-baja-california","tag-california","tag-immigration","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-north-county","tag-oceanside","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}