NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 A U.S. Army staff sergeant is trying to halt his wife’s deportation after she was detained inside a Louisiana military base where the couple was planning to live together just days after their wedding.<\/p>\n
The effort to remove the soldier’s wife, who was born in Honduras and remained in a federal immigration detention center Monday, has drawn backlash from military family advocates who called the detention demoralizing in\u00a0a time of war\u00a0and warned that deporting spouses could undermine recruitment.<\/p>\n
Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank said he brought his wife, Annie Ramos, 22, to his base in Fort Polk, Louisiana, last Thursday so that she could begin the process to receive military benefits and take steps toward a green card. The couple married in March.<\/p>\n
Federal immigration agents detained Ramos as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda, which legal experts say has dispensed with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s practice of leniency toward families of military members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never imagined that trying to do the right thing would lead to her being taken away from me,\u201d said Blank, 23, in a statement to The Associated Press. \u201cWhat was supposed to be the happiest week of our lives has turned into one of the hardest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ramos’ detention was\u00a0first reported\u00a0by The New York Times.<\/p>\n
Ramos entered the U.S. in 2005, when she was younger than 2 years old. That same year, her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to issue a final order of removal, according to DHS.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has no legal status to be in this country,\u201d DHS said in an emailed statement. \u201cThis administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2020, Ramos applied to receive\u00a0Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA, but her husband says her application has remained \u201cin limbo\u201d amid legal fights to end the Obama-era program.<\/p>\n
Last April, DHS eliminated a\u00a02022 policy\u00a0that considered military service of an immediate family member to be a \u201csignificant mitigating factor\u201d in deciding whether or not to pursue immigration enforcement. The administration\u2019s\u00a0new policy\u00a0states that \u201cmilitary service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to the Trump administration’s mass deportation push, DHS generally allowed the spouses of active-duty military members to gain legal status through policies like parole in place and deferred action that military recruiters promote, according to Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.<\/p>\n
Ramos’ case would have been easy to resolve in the past, Stock said, but instead DHS now appears to be focusing on detaining members of military families whenever the opportunity arises \u2014 including when, like Ramos, they are attempting to apply for legal status.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense \u2014 they\u2019re going to get arrested for following the law? That’s stupid,” Stock said. \u201cIt’s bad for morale, it disrupts the soldiers’ readiness.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the U.S. Department of Defense warning that\u00a0arrests of military personnel and veteran’s family members was \u201cbetraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security.”<\/p>\n
The Pentagon declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs an advocacy group called the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, said she’s anecdotally seen an increase in cases where the lives of military families have been upended by tightening immigration restrictions. She believes the federal government is undermining its own interests by attempting to deport military spouses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just sends a really bad message \u2014 we don\u2019t care about you, about your spouses, anything you are doing,\u201d Owiti-Otienoh said. \u201cIf military families are not stable, national security is not stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blank\u2019s mother, Jen Rickling, told the AP in a statement that her daughter-in-law, a Sunday school teacher and biochemistry major, had been everything she hoped for \u2014 someone who \u201cloves my son with her whole heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe absolutely adore her,\u201d Rickling said. \u201cI believe in this country. And I believe we can do better than this \u2014 for Annie, for other military families, and for the values we hold dear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blank says he had been eager to start building a life and with Ramos on the base while he served his country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want my wife home,” Blank said. \u201cAnd I will not stop fighting until she is back where she belongs, by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press\/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.\u00a0Report for America\u00a0is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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