Overview
- Ramos, who was detained Thursday, April 2 at Fort Polk while checking in for a spouse ID, is now held at an ICE detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
- DHS says she has no legal status under a final removal order issued in 2005 after a missed immigration hearing and says agents arrested her after she tried to enter the base.
- The couple had hired an attorney and were starting a marriage-based residency application as she sought a military spouse ID, and relatives say the 22-year-old biochemistry student has lived in the U.S. since toddlerhood with no criminal record.
- Family lawyers have asked ICE to release her on her own recognizance and are preparing a motion to reopen the 2005 order, a step that experts say is needed to prevent rapid deportation.
- Advocates and legal experts point to curtailed tools once used for service-member families, such as parole in place and deferred action, and warn the tougher approach is hurting morale and recruitment as DHS frames the move as enforcing the rule of law.