Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents under the command of the Trump administration have reportedly detained the wife of a US army staff sergeant at his military base in Louisiana amid his preparations to deploy.
The arrest of Annie Ramos, 22, took place last Thursday, just days after she married 23-year-old Matthew Blank, a soldier who has served for more than five years and previously deployed to the Middle East and Europe, the New York Times first reported on Sunday.
Ramos, a biochemistry student with no criminal history who also teaches Sunday school, had been subject to a deportation order issued in absentia in 2005 when she was an infant after her family missed an immigration court hearing, the New York Times reported.
With pathways available for undocumented immigrants to obtain legal permanent residency through marriage, and eventually apply for citizenship, Ramos and Blank had already hired a lawyer to begin the process before their wedding.
“I knew she didn’t have status,” Blank told the New York Times. But, he added: “We were doing everything the right way.”
In 2020, Ramos had applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca), a federal program offering deportation protections to undocumented people who had entered the US as children. However, the New York Times reports that her application was never processed after the administration during Donald Trump’s first presidency stopped accepting new applicants.
Blank, who is stationed at Louisiana’s Fort Polk and was due to start deployment training over the coming month, told the outlet: “Our plan was to drive over, bring her to the office to get her military ID and activate her military spouse benefits … She was going to move in after the Easter weekend.
“Instead, she got ripped away from me.”
Ramos’s plight is one of only several instances that contradict Trump’s initial claims that his ongoing immigration crackdown would prioritize deporting dangerous criminals. As it has sought to increase deportation numbers, the campaign has affected a growing number of military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves – generally without consideration for their records of having defended the US.
As the Times reported, on 2 April, Blank and Ramon – along with his parents – went to the Fort Polk visitor center, bringing her birth certificate, her Honduran passport, the couple’s marriage license and his military ID.
However, when asked whether Ramos had a visa or green card indicating legal permanent resident status, the family explained that she did not – but added that their lawyer had already prepared the necessary paperwork for her application.
An attendant responded: “We’ll figure it out,” before making several phone calls, the New York Times reports. A supervisor soon arrived, followed by an officer from the base’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID) who said he was going to contact ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Ramos was then handcuffed and placed inside a military police vehicle where she was taken to another building. There, she was held in what Blank’s family described as an “interrogation room”.
Three ICE agents later arrived at the scene. Blank’s parents told the New York Times: “They told us that they didn’t have a choice – they said they had to take Annie.” He noted that the agents seemed apologetic.
Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, added: “I begged them not to take her … They said the higher-ups made them do it.”
Ramos was subsequently transferred to a detention facility in Basile, Louisiana. When Blank’s family visited days later, they were not allowed to bring in any documents, preventing her from signing a completed green card application.
Speaking to the New York Times, Ramos said: “I grew up here like any American. This is all I know.
“My husband and family are here.”
ICE did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
