ICE Detains Soldier’s Spouse—in US Since Age 2—Earlier than His Deployment

[ad_1] U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers detained the spouse of an Military employees sergeant days after their wedding ceremony, with Trump administration officers saying she was an unlawful immigrant attempting to entry a army base.

Annie Ramos, 22, had been within the U.S. since she was a toddler, after arriving from Honduras, and had married Matthew Clean, 23, in late March, earlier than heading to Fort Polk in Louisiana April 2, first reported by The New York Occasions.

When the couple arrived for his or her appointment to acquire Ramos’ army ID, she was as an alternative handed over to immigration brokers.

“What was purported to be the happiest week of our lives has become one of many hardest,” Clean mentioned in a press release launched Monday. “I by no means imagined that attempting to do the precise factor—registering my spouse so she might obtain her army ID, entry the advantages she is entitled to as my partner, and start the method towards her inexperienced card—would result in her being taken away from me.”

The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) advised Newsweek that Ramos had a last order issued in 2005, when she was an toddler, and that the Trump administration “is just not going to disregard the rule of regulation.”

Why It Issues The Trump administration has considerably ramped up its detention efforts aimed toward immigrants with out authorized standing, no matter whether or not they have adopted current protocols. The change in enforcement efforts has led to a number of tales of spouses of U.S. residents being detained by ICE at common immigration check-ins, sparking criticism linked to President Donald Trump’s promise to go after the “worst of the worst.”

<img id="11789845" alt="" caption="U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank and his wife Annie Ramos, who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on April 2, 2026." captionoverride="U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank and his wife Annie Ramos, who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday." src="Matthew Blank family handout" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="3000" height="2000" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=640&quality=80&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=750&quality=80&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=1000&quality=80&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=1200&quality=80&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=1360&quality=80&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Copy-of-32-Split-Screen-2026-04-06T162923.401.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1"/> What To Know Based on the Occasions, Ramos and Clean met in 2025 by way of a relationship app and so they acquired engaged on New 12 months’s Day. In late March, they married in entrance of round 60 company in Houston, the place she was raised.

Ramos was described as a religious Christian who teaches Sunday faculty and was a couple of months away from ending a biochemistry diploma.

She had arrived within the U.S. on the southwest border in February 2005, DHS mentioned, and had “failed to point out up for her immigration listening to,” resulting in a last order of elimination being issued in April that yr.

With Ramos having been a small little one at the moment, it was commonplace for undocumented immigrants like her to not be focused by ICE, and when she was older, in 2020, she utilized for Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) standing, however attributable to a pause on new purposes put in place by the primary Trump administration, that utility was not processed.

Additionally below immigration legal guidelines, an immigrant, authorized or unlawful, who marries a U.S. citizen is eligible to use for authorized everlasting residency, or a inexperienced card. That is what the couple deliberate to do, and their appointment April 2 was meant to safe her army spousal standing within the meantime.

As a substitute, an officer scrutinized her paperwork, requested if she had a inexperienced card but and known as federal immigration brokers. Ramos was handcuffed and brought away to a detention heart in Louisiana. DHS mentioned Ramos had been detained, partially, as a result of she had tried to enter a army base.

Clean advised the Occasions that the couple had deliberate to get settled and activate Ramos' advantages earlier than he was deployed, however as an alternative she had been ripped away from him. Clean's deliberate deployment date is unknown, per the outlet.

Attorneys for the household have requested that Ramos be launched on her personal recognizance pending additional hearings, with concern she could possibly be deported at any time.

<img id="11789743" alt="" caption="Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents patrol Dulles International Airport on March 24, 2026 in Dulles, Virginia." captionoverride="U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents patrol Dulles International Airport on March 24 in Dulles, Virginia." src="Heather Diehl/Getty Images" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="8192" height="5464" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=640&quality=80&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=750&quality=80&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=1000&quality=80&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=1200&quality=80&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=1360&quality=80&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/GettyImages-2268183057.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1"/> What Folks Are Saying A DHS spokesperson, in a press release to Newsweek: “She has no authorized standing to be on this nation and was issued a last order of elimination by a choose. This administration is just not going to disregard the rule of regulation.”

Clean, in a press release launched Monday: “As a substitute of getting ready for our future collectively, I'm now combating for her freedom. I would like my spouse dwelling. I wish to construct our life collectively. I wish to begin our household. And I can't cease combating till she is again the place she belongs, by my aspect. I'm proud to serve this nation. I'm proud to be her husband. And I'll stand by her, it doesn't matter what it takes.”

Jen Rickling, Clean’s mom, in a press release: “I consider on this nation. And I consider we will do higher than this – for Annie, for different army households, and for the values we maintain pricey. My son and my daughter-in-law ought to be capable of construct their lives collectively right here, in a nation that my son is so dedicated to serving.”

Gaby Pacheco, president and CEO of TheDream.US, which represents DACA college students, in a press release Monday: “Detaining a 22-year-old biochemistry scholar who has lived right here for twenty years and is married to a U.S. Military employees sergeant getting ready for deployment doesn’t make us safer – it weakens a army household, undermines our fundamental values, and exposes how far we’ve fallen as a nation. Annie Ramos must be launched from detention and returned to her household. And our nation and our President ought to use this second as a wake-up name.”

What Occurs Subsequent Clean and his household have vowed to battle to free Ramos, whereas DHS mentioned in its assertion she was free to self-deport and search to return to the U.S. by way of authorized channels.