ICE Detains Soldier's New Wife at Base Check-In

The honeymoon ended abruptly for an Army staff sergeant and his new wife when ICE agents showed up at his Louisiana base. Hours after arriving at Fort Polk to get her military spouse ID and benefits, 22-year-old Annie Ramos, an undocumented Honduran immigrant brought to the US as a toddler, was handcuffed and taken into ICE custody, the New York Times reports. Just days after her wedding to Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, who is scheduled to start training for deployment, the college student with no criminal record is now in a detention center facing deportation.

Ramos had a deportation order issued when she was 22 months old after her family missed an immigration court hearing, the Times reports. Experts say that in past administrations, people in her situation—especially military spouses—were typically allowed to remain in the country while they adjusted their status. But DHS says Ramos "has no legal status" and that the government "is not going to ignore the rule of law" after "she attempted to enter a military base."

Sergeant Blank, 23, says he told officials that their lawyer was preparing a green card application. "We were doing everything the right way," he tells the Times, but still, "she got ripped away from me." Their attorney is now working to reopen the old order. That would prevent Ramos' deportation, which could happen at any moment. A legal expert quoted by Raw Story notes that "a scholarship college student who teaches Sunday School" hardly fits the definition of criminal alien. Another quoted by the Times describes the situation as "fundamentally harmful to national security," causing "a major crisis" for a soldier whose "mind can't be on the job."