Latest news with #AdrianClouatre
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
US marine veteran says he feels ‘betrayed' after father arrested by Ice agents
A US marine veteran has described feeling 'betrayed' after Trump administration immigration agents beat and arrested his father at his landscaping job, the latest example of immigrant agents targeting the family members of American military personnel with no criminal records. In an interview Monday with CNN, Alejandro Barranco recounted how his father, Narciso Barranco, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents two days earlier while doing landscaping at an International House of Pancakes (IHop) restaurant in Santa Ana, California. Narciso Barranco moved to the US from Mexico without documentation in the 1990s and has no criminal record, Alejandro Barranco told CNN. 'He was always a good dad,' he said. 'He always made sure we had food on the table. He always taught us to respect, to love our country, to always give back.' The Barrancos' plight is the latest example to contradict Donald Trump's claims that his immigration crackdown has prioritized targeting dangerous criminals. Another US marine veteran, Adrian Clouatre, went public recently about how Ice agents detained his wife, Paola, despite the fact that the couple have a 2-year old son and a 3-month-old daughter who is still breastfeeding. The 25-year-old Paola Clouatre was brought to the US by her mother while seeking asylum more than a decade ago, and had applied for legal permanent residence, her husband told the Associated Press. The US marines have promoted enlistment as protection for family members lacking legal status. But Adrian Clouatre said Paola was detained at a late May appointment pertaining to her green card application process, with officials claiming that she was subject to a deportation order because of her mother's failure to appear at an immigration hearing in 2018. Being in the US without legal status is a civil violation, not a criminal offense. Nonetheless, recent data shows people with no criminal history have been increasingly targeted by immigration agents, despite the Trump administration's claims that it is mainly focused on criminals with adjudicated final orders of removal. In Narciso Barranco's case, video obtained by CNN of his arrest showed several masked men in tactical gear subduing him against the ground as well as repeatedly striking his head and neck. The men – clad in vests reading 'US border patrol police' – held Barranco's arms behind his back and forced him into an unmarked vehicle. His son said Barranco later called him from a detention facility and asked him to collect his landscaping tools and finish the job he was on when arrested. He told the AP that his father was crying during the call, saying he was in a lot of pain. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, gave a statement to CNN that accused Barranco of twice trying to swing 'a weed whacker directly at an agent's face'. The agency published a video online of Barranco holding a weed whacker, and McLaughlin also said Barranco 'fled through a busy intersection' and 'refused to comply' with agents' commands. Alejandro Barranco said he believed his father had simply run upon being frightened by 'masked men' who wielded 'big guns' and didn't 'identify themselves'. 'He just got scared,' he said to CNN, adding to AP: 'It's uncalled for, not appropriate or professional in the way they handled that situation.' Regarding the video, he said: 'It looks like he's putting up resistance on the ground but that's a natural human reaction, and I think anybody would do that to defend themselves when they are being beaten.' Barranco told CNN his father had been afraid of being arrested over his immigration status, but kept going to work because he felt the need 'to provide for himself' and his family. Alejandro Barranco's LinkedIn says he became a mechanical engineer for the US marines in October 2019. He told CNN that he served for four years and that his two brothers were active-duty marines. 'We joined the Marine Corps because we love our country and want to give back,' he told AP, adding to CNN: 'It's hard. We feel hurt. We feel betrayed.'
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Marine veteran appeals to Trump after his breastfeeding Mexican wife gets deported
A retired U.S. Marine veteran is appealing to the courts and President Trump to intervene after ICE agents arrested his Mexico-born wife on a deportation order while she was meeting with officials to try to secure a green card. Adrian Clouatre has been forced to rely on his parents to help care for his 10-week old as he holds down his job and tries to work the legal process get his wife Paola out of a detention center so they can be reunited. Paola got arrested while seeking to resolve her own immigration status after her mother's failure to appear for an interview brought a deportation order. Now the 26-year-old Marine vet is appealing to a California judge to close the administrative holdup – and says he may seek a pardon from President Donald Trump. 'They straight up lied to me,' Clouatre told the Daily Mail, when describing how his wife got arrested at her immigration appointment. 'I mean, for lack of a better word, they told us that we passed the interviewing, to go wait in the lobby for paper regarding our next appointment. And instead, we were met by three ICE agents. They handcuffed her, they recommended that I take her wedding ring, and they let me give her a hug and kiss goodbye,' he said. For the time being he is trying to keep things together by holding down his job managing a restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana while his parents help care for his kids. The couple also has a two year old. He has substituted infant formula since his youngest is unable to breast feed while his wife is in detention. He visits the detention center in Monroe, Louisiana, which is about a four-hour car drive away. The facility is located in a remote rural area, and has also been used to house detained immigrant students from across the country. 'I mean, if the president saw it and pardoned it, that would be ideal,' Clouatre said. 'He has the power to pardon immigrants. He has the power to pardon a rapper with felony gun charges. I'm sure he could pardon my wife, to be blunt,' he said. 'I have not reached out to the president but I may,' he added. 'It's just not way to treat a vet for crying out loud,' his lawyer Carey Holliday told the Daily Mail. 'Honorable discharge form the Marine Corps, two small children – it's just not fair to the family,' he said. The case has received publicity in Louisiana and now nationally. Clouatre's team has been in contact with Louisiana Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidey seeking to connect them with ICE officials. The case is just one of numerous high-profile ICE arrests at courthouses, administrative agencies, and work sites as part of Trump's 'mass deportation' campaign. The White House is demanding 3,000 people a day. An AP report including a separate interview with Clouatre said the administration had jettisoned policies of providing deference to military families, even as Marine Corps recruiters 'promote enlistment as protection' for families without legal status. Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded that Paola Clouatre 'is in the country illegally' and said the Trump administration is 'not going to ignore the rule of law.' Paola Clouatre is a 25-year old Mexican national whose brought her to the US seeking asylum when she was a minor. It was during the process of seeking to get a green card when she and her husband learned she was subject to a 2018 deportation order, he said. 'They both showed up in 2016, and in 2018 the mother failed to appear. And my wife was homeless and had no contact with her mother, and was also a minor,' Clouatre told the Daily Mail. Now, his lawyer is trying to get a California judge to dispense with that order so that he can appeal to the administration to resolve the situation. Asked for his own thoughts on enforcement, Clouatre said the 'ability to use discretion should be given to the Enforcement and Removal officers at the lowest level.' 'They were very sympathetic. They didn't want to detain her,' he told Daily Mail. THey even told her that like while she was waiting to be sent to Hancock County (Mississippi),' he said.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE detains Marine Corps veteran's wife at green card meeting
BATON ROUGE, La. — Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre doesn't know how to tell his children where their mother went after U.S. 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, 'Mama will be back soon.' When his 3-month-old, breastfeeding daughter Lyn is hungry, he gives her a bottle of baby formula instead. He's 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. ICE agents to assist base security at three Marine Corps installations 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 seeking asylum 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's names on their arms. After they married in 2024, Paola Clouatre sought a green card to legally live and work in the U.S. Adrian Clouatre said he is 'not a very political person' but believes his wife deserved to live legally in the U.S. 'I'm all for 'get the criminals out of the country,' right?' he said. 'But the people that are here working hard, especially the ones married to Americans — I mean, that's always been a way to secure a green card.' The process to apply for Paola Clouatre's 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 — Clouatre cycled out of homeless shelters as a teenager — and up until a couple of months ago, Clouatre had 'no idea' about her mother's missed hearing or the deportation order, her husband said. Adrian Clouatre recalled that a U.S. 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 'ploy.' 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 'do the right thing' and that he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs. 'It's just a hell of a way to treat a veteran,' said Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now representing the couple. 'You take their wives and send them back to Mexico?' The Clouatres filed a motion for a California-based immigration judge to reopen the case on Paola's deportation order and are waiting to hear back, Holliday said. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement that Paola Clouatre 'is in the country illegally' and that the administration is 'not going to ignore the rule of law.' 'Ignoring an Immigration Judge's order to leave the U.S. is a bad idea,' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a June 9 post on X which appeared to refer to Clouatre's case. The agency added that the government 'has a long memory and no tolerance for defiance when it comes to making America safe again.' Adrian Clouatre said the agency's X post does not accurately reflect his wife's situation because she entered the country as a minor with her mother, seeking asylum. 'She was not aware of the removal order, so she was not knowingly defying it,' he said. 'If she had been arrested, she would have been deported long ago, and we would never have met.' Prior to the Trump administration's 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 'will no longer exempt' 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 U.S. 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's 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 'protection from deportation' for family members. 'I think it's 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,' Stock said. 'It sends the wrong message to the recruits.' Marine Corps spokesperson Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac told The Associated Press that recruiters have now been informed they are 'not the proper authority' to 'imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.' Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Marine Corps veteran's wife, who is still breastfeeding their 3-month-old, arrested by ICE
ICE is threatening to deport the wife of a Marine Corps veteran who was still breastfeeding their youngest child, according to reports. Paola Clouatre, 25, of Baton Rouge in Louisiana, was brought to the U.S. from Mexico by her mother to seek asylum while she was still a child, her husband Adrian Clouatre told the Associated Press. But when Paola attended a green card appointment with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on May 27, she was detained by ICE over a seven-year-old deportation order that Adrian claims she had only recently found out about. "I'm all for 'get the criminals out of the country,' right? But the people that are here working hard, especially the ones married to Americans — I mean, that's always been a way to secure a green card," Adrian told the AP. Now Adrian is left trying to explain to the couple's two-year-old son Noah why his mother is gone, while feeding their three-month-old daughter Lyn with bottles of baby formula. The case shows how U.S. immigration authorities are abandoning the leeway once given to families of military veterans as they reportedly scramble to meet a new quota of 3,000 arrests per day. "It's just a hell of a way to treat a veteran," said Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now the couple's lawyer. "You take their wives and send them back to Mexico?" Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the AP that Paola Clouatre is "is in the country illegally" and that her department "is not going to ignore the rule of law." In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), which appeared to describe Clouatre's case without naming her, the USCIS said: "Ignoring an immigration judge's order to leave the U.S. is a bad idea. When an illegal alien from Mexico was apprehended and ordered removed by a judge in 2018, she chose to defy the order and stay in the U.S. "Seven years later, she had another bad idea and applied for a Green Card. ICE took her into custody at our New Orleans office. DHS has a long memory and no tolerance for defiance when it comes to making America safe again. "Don't be caught in this situation. Do the right thing and use the CBP Home App to self-deport now." Paola and Adrian Clouatre met at a nightclub in southern California in 2022, during the the final months of Adrian's five-year military service. They quickly fell in love, and got married in 2024. Yet while applying for a green card, Paola found out that ICE had issued an a deportation order against her in California back in 2018, after her mother failed to appear at an immigration hearing. That was news to Paola, Adrian said, because she had been estranged from her mother since she was young and had spent much of her teenage years homeless and living in shelters. The couple have applied to a California immigration judge asking to reopen Paola's old deportation case, but have not yet heard back, Adrian said. Immigration experts said the USCIS had previously allowed a lot of latitude to military spouses, but had ended that policy earlier this year. The AP also found Marine Corps recruiters still claiming on social media that enlisting in the service could protect recruits' family members from deportation. A Marine Corps spokesperson said it had told recruiters they were "not the proper authority" to imply that the Corps could "secure immigration relief" for them or their families.
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
ICE detains Marine Corps veteran's wife who was still breastfeeding their baby
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre doesn't know how to tell his children where their mother went after U.S. 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, 'Mama will be back soon.' When his 3-month-old, breastfeeding daughter Lyn is hungry, he gives her a bottle of baby formula instead. He's 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 seeking asylum 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's names on their arms. After they married in 2024, Paola Clouatre sought a green card to legally live and work in the U.S. Adrian Clouatre said he is 'not a very political person' but believes his wife deserved to live legally in the U.S. 'I'm all for 'get the criminals out of the country,' right?' he said. 'But the people that are here working hard, especially the ones married to Americans — I mean, that's always been a way to secure a green card.' Detained at a green card meeting The process to apply for Paola Clouatre's 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 — Clouatre cycled out of homeless shelters as a teenager — and up until a couple of months ago, Clouatre had 'no idea' about her mother's missed hearing or the deportation order, her husband said. Adrian Clouatre recalled that a U.S. 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 'ploy.' 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 'do the right thing' and that he felt ICE officers should have more discretion over arrests, though he understood they were trying to do their jobs. 'It's just a hell of a way to treat a veteran,' said Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now representing the couple. 'You take their wives and send them back to Mexico?' The Clouatres filed a motion for a California-based immigration judge to reopen the case on Paola's 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 'is in the country illegally' and that the administration is 'not going to ignore the rule of law.' 'Ignoring an Immigration Judge's order to leave the U.S. is a bad idea,' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a June 9 post on X which appeared to refer to Clouatre's case. The agency added that the government 'has a long memory and no tolerance for defiance when it comes to making America safe again.' Adrian Clouatre said the agency's X post does not accurately reflect his wife's situation because she entered the country as a minor with her mother, seeking asylum. 'She was not aware of the removal order, so she was not knowingly defying it,' he said. 'If she had been arrested, she would have been deported long ago, and we would never have met.' Prior to the Trump administration's 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 'will no longer exempt' 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 U.S. 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's 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 'protection from deportation' for family members. 'I think it's 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,' Stock said. 'It sends the wrong message to the recruits.' Marine Corps spokesperson Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac told The Associated Press that recruiters have now been informed they are 'not the proper authority' to 'imply that the Marine Corps can secure immigration relief for applicants or their families.' ___ This story has been updated to correct that Paola Clouatre initially entered the U.S. seeking asylum, not that she illegally entered the country.
