As thousands sit in ICE detention, one woman is fighting to bring her husband home

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Set us as preferred Blanca Ortiz has cycled through bouts of sadness, anxiety and anger ever since her husband was detained by federal immigration agents five months ago.The anger was always the hardest to shake, and it took hold again after yet another fruitless meeting with an immigration lawyer in Riverside this summer.Like nearly a dozen other attorneys, Ortiz said, he had said there was nothing he could do for her.

Ortiz, 45, of Adelanto, said her family has worked relentlessly to release her husband, Carlos Ortiz Jara, from federal detention since he was taken into custody May 12 at a U.S.Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Pomona, where he had gone to be fingerprinted for his visa application.

The explosion of arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents has crowded detention centers nationwide, leaving tens of thousands of families to navigate a complex immigration landscape.More than 65,000 immigrants were detained nationwide as of July, according to TRAC, a data gathering and research organization.The Ortiz family didn’t initially anticipate trouble in getting an immigrant visa for Ortiz Jara, a first step toward eventual citizenship.

Ortiz Jara, a 49-year-old Mexican national, married Blanca Ortiz in 1999.The couple have four U.S.-born children together, and their eldest son, Carlos Ortiz Jr., is a sergeant in the Marine Corps.But there were complications.

Ortiz Jara had been detained and deported when he first tried to cross the U.S.border in 1998 in an effort to escape drug cartel violence, Ortiz said.

Undocumented immigrants who reenter the U.S.after being deported must typically spend a decade outside the country before they can apply for permission to reenter.

But the couple was determined.Ortiz said she has spent roughly $40,000 of her savings in recent months hiring three different...