BATON ROUGE: Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre doesn鈥檛 know how to tell his children where their mother went after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained her last month.
When his nearly 2-year-old son Noah asks for his mother before bed, Clouatre just tells him, 鈥淢ama will be back soon.鈥� When his 3-month-old, breastfeeding daughter Lyn is hungry, he gives her a bottle of baby formula instead. He鈥檚 worried how his newborn will bond with her mother absent skin-to-skin contact.
His wife, Paola, is one of tens of thousands of people in custody and facing deportation as the Trump administration pushes for immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day.
Even as Marine Corps recruiters promote enlistment as protection for families lacking legal status, directives for strict immigrant enforcement have cast away practices of deference previously afforded to military families, immigration law experts say. The federal agency tasked with helping military family members gain legal status now refers them for deportation, government memos show.
To visit his wife, Adrian Clouatre has to make an eight-hour round trip from their home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to a rural ICE detention center in Monroe. Clouatre, who qualifies as a service-disabled veteran, goes every chance he can get.
Paola Clouatre, a 25-year-old Mexican national whose mother brought her into the country illegally more than a decade ago, met Adrian Clouatre, 26, at a southern California nightclub during the final months of his five years of military service in 2022. Within a year, they had tattooed each other鈥檚 names on their arms.
After they married in 2024, Paola Clouatre sought a green card to legally live and work in the US Adrian Clouatre said he is 鈥渘ot a very political person鈥� but believes his wife deserved to live legally in the US
鈥淚鈥檓 all for 鈥榞et the criminals out of the country,鈥� right?鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut the people that are here working hard, especially the ones married to Americans 鈥� I mean, that鈥檚 always been a way to secure a green card.鈥�
Detained at a green card meeting
The process to apply for Paola Clouatre鈥檚 green card went smoothly at first, but eventually she learned ICE had issued an order for her deportation in 2018 after her mother failed to appear at an immigration hearing.
Clouatre and her mother had been estranged for years 鈥� Clouatre cycled out of homeless shelters as a teenager 鈥� and up until a couple of months ago, Clouatre had 鈥渘o idea鈥� about her mother鈥檚 missed hearing or the deportation order, her husband said.
Adrian Clouatre recalled that a US Citizenship and Immigration Services staffer asked about the deportation order during a May 27 appointment as part of her green card application. After Paola Clouatre explained that she was trying to reopen her case, the staffer asked her and her husband to wait in the lobby for paperwork regarding a follow-up appointment, which her husband said he believed was a 鈥減loy.鈥�
Soon, officers arrived and handcuffed Paola Clouatre, who handed her wedding ring to her husband for safekeeping.
Adrian Clouatre, eyes welling with tears, said he and his wife had tried to 鈥渄o the right thing鈥� and that he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just a hell of a way to treat a veteran,鈥� said Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now representing the couple. 鈥淵ou take their wives and send them back to Mexico?鈥�
The Clouatres filed a motion for a California-based immigration judge to reopen the case on Paola鈥檚 deportation order and are waiting to hear back, Holliday said.
Less discretion for military families
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Paola Clouatre 鈥渋s in the country illegally鈥� and that the administration is 鈥渘ot going to ignore the rule of law.鈥�
鈥淚gnoring an Immigration Judge鈥檚 order to leave the US is a bad idea,鈥� US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a June 9 post on X which appeared to refer to Clouatre鈥檚 case. The agency added that the government 鈥渉as a long memory and no tolerance for defiance when it comes to making America safe again.鈥�
Prior to the Trump administration鈥檚 push to drive up deportations, USCIS provided much more discretion for veterans seeking legal status for a family member, said Holliday and Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert.
In a Feb. 28 memo, the agency said it 鈥渨ill no longer exempt鈥� from deportation people in groups that had received more grace in the past. This includes the families of military personnel or veterans, Stock said. As of June 12, the agency said it has referred upward of 26,000 cases to ICE for deportation.
USCIS still offers a program allowing family members of military personnel who illegally entered the US to remain in the country as they apply for a green card. But there no longer appears to be room for leeway, such as giving a veteran鈥檚 spouse like Paola Clouatre the opportunity to halt her active deportation order without facing arrest, Stock said.
But numerous Marine Corps recruiters have continued to post ads on social media, geared toward Latinos, promoting enlistment as a way to gain 鈥減rotection from deportation鈥� for family members.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 bad for them to be advertising that people are going to get immigration benefits when it appears that the administration is no longer offering these immigration benefits,鈥� Stock said. 鈥淚t sends the wrong message to the recruits.鈥�
Marine Corps spokesperson Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac told The Associated Press that recruiters have now been informed they are 鈥渘ot the proper authority鈥� to 鈥渋mply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.鈥�