BATO RUGGE, Louisiana (AP) – Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre didn't know how to tell his children that their mother detained her immigration and customs law enforcement officers in the U.S. last month.
When his nearly 2-year-old son Noah asked his mother before bed, Clouatre simply told him, “Mom will be back soon.” When his 3-month-old breastfeeding daughter Lyn was hungry, he gave her a bottle of baby formula. He was worried about how his newborn would contact his mother who had no skin contact.
His wife, Paola, is one of thousands of detainees, faces deportation as the Trump administration urges immigration officials to arrest 3,000 people a day.
Immigration law experts say that even if Marine recruiters promote enlistment, as protection for families who lack legal status, strict immigration enforcement directives have eliminated the respect previously provided to military families. The government memorandum shows that the federal agency’s mission is to help military family members gain legal status deportation.
To visit his wife, Adrian Cloudre had to return from his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for eight hours to the rural ice detention center in Monroe. Clouatre is qualified to serve as a veteran in poverty and he will get all the opportunities.
Paola Cloudre, a 25-year-old Mexican national whose mother brought her to a country that sought asylum more than a decade ago, met Adrian Cloudre at a Southern California nightclub in the final months of five years of military service in 2022. Within one year, they had tattoos of each other's names.
After they got married in 2024, Paula Cloudre sought a green card to live and work legally in Adrian Cloudre, U.S., who said he was “not a very political person” but believed his wife deserved the law to live in the United States.
“I'm all about 'bringing criminals out of the country, right?” he said. “But people who work hard here, especially those who marry Americans – I mean, it's always been a way to secure a green card.”
Detained at a green card meeting
The process of applying for a green card for Paola Cloudre was smooth at first, but eventually she learned that the ICE issued an order for deportation in 2018 after her mother failed to attend an immigration hearing.
Her husband said Clotel and her mother had been alienated for years – Clotel had been riding a bicycle from the shelter of homeless people as a teenager – until a few months ago, Clotel “don't know” about her mother's missed hearings or deportation orders.
Adrian Cloudre recalls that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff asked about the deportation order during a May 27 appointment as part of their green card application. After Paola Cloudre explained that she tried to retry the case, staff asked her and her husband to wait in the hall for paperwork about the follow-up date, which her husband said he thought was “ploy.”
Soon the officer arrived and handcuffed Paulola Cloudre, who handed the wedding ring to her husband for custody.
Adrian Cloudre said in tears, saying he and his wife were trying to “do the right thing” and he believed that ice officials should have more discretion over the arrest, even though he knew they were trying to do their job.
“It’s just a kind of hell to treat veterans,” said former immigration judge Carey Holliday. “Did you take their wives and send them back to Mexico?”
Houlidy said Cloudres filed a motion for the California immigration judge to re-eliminate Paola's deportation order and is awaiting hearing.
Military families have fewer discretion
Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Paola Cloudre is “illegal in the state” and that the government “will not ignore the rule of law.”
“Ignoring the orders of immigration judges leaving the U.S. is a bad idea,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service said in an article published on X on June 9. “The government “has a long memory of making the U.S. safe again, tolerance for violations,” the agency added. ”
Adrian Cloudre said the agency’s X post does not accurately reflect his wife’s situation because she seeks asylum with her mother.
“She didn't know the demolition order, so she didn't realize it was intentional violation,” he said. “If she was arrested, she would be deported a long time ago, and we would never meet.”
Military immigration law experts Holliday and Margaret Stock said USCIS offered more discretion to veterans seeking legal status as family members before the Trump administration pushed for push for deportation.
In a February 28 memorandum, the agency said it “will no longer exempt” from deportation from groups that have received more grace in the past. This includes military personnel or veterans’ families, the stock said. As of June 12, the agency said it had submitted 26,000 cases to ICE deportation.
USCIS still offers a program that allows family members of military personnel who illegally enter the United States to stay in the country when applying for a green card. However, stocks seem to have no room for room for space, such as giving veteran spouses like Paola Cloudre the chance to stop her active eviction order without facing arrest.
However, many Marine recruiters continue to post ads on social media, aiming to promote Latinoism, and enlistment is a way to “free from deportation” for family members.
“I think people advertise when the government doesn't seem to offer these immigration benefits anymore,” the stock said. “It sends the wrong message to recruits.”
Marine Corps spokesman master. Tyler Hlavac told the Associated Press that recruiters are now told that they are “not the proper power” and “hint that the Marines can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.”
___
The story has been updated to correct Paola Cloudre’s initial entry into the United States for asylum, rather than her illegal entry into the country.
___
Brook is a member of the Associated Press/Reports Corps of the State University News Initiative. The U.S. Report is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report secret issues.
