Oregon Guard Recruiter Uses Parole in Place to Help Undocumented Parents

In The Dalles, Ore., Sgt. First Class Rosa Cortez, an Oregon National Guard recruiter, has been encouraging U.S. citizens to enlist as a way to secure Parole in Place protection for undocumented parents amid a local surge of immigration enforcement. Parole in Place, launched in 2013, provides the undocumented parents and spouses of service members protection from deportation and an expedited pathway to permanent residency.

Only U.S. citizens and permanent residents may enlist in the military, and recruiters around the country have been presenting the program as a recruiting tool; in 2023 about 11,500 relatives used the benefit, a 35 percent increase over the prior year, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Cortez, who grew up in the region’s orchards, works a 100-mile recruiting territory and has helped young people including a 23-year-old identified as Juan, who sought to enlist so his mother could qualify for Parole in Place and later passed the military entrance exam on Dec. 22. Another recruit, Lindsey Vazquez, 20, joined to help her parents; her parents have already received work permits and Social Security numbers through the program.

The outreach comes as residents described fear after a longtime local resident, Salvador Muratalla, was detained by masked ICE agents at a Home Depot. The program’s origins trace to a 2007 case involving Sgt. Alex R.

Key Topics

Politics, Rosa Cortez, Oregon National Guard, The Dalles, Lindsey Vazquez, Ice