A US Senator’s call to Homeland Boss Mullin helped things stepped back from a media political and military landmine….
The newlywed wife of a U.S. soldier who was detained last week at her husband’s Army base was released on Tuesday, after spending five days at a detention center with hundreds of other women facing deportation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The wife, Annie Ramos, 22, an undocumented immigrant who arrived in the United States as a toddler, was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at Fort Polk, La., on April 2. She was told she had a final deportation order. It was issued in April 2005, when she was 22 months old.
The couple had gone to the base to complete paperwork so Ms. Ramos could move in with her husband, Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, who enlisted more than five years ago and is scheduled to begin training at the end of the month for deployment. But within hours that plan was derailed, and days later a New York Times article about the case quickly spread online.
It is highly unusual for the wife of a soldier to be detained because of her immigration status, and the case highlights how the administration’s mass deportation campaign has extended beyond targeting those with criminal histories.
On Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Ramos walked out of the detention facility and into her husband’s arms. Sergeant Blank put her wedding ring back on her finger, which Ms. Ramos had been told to remove. She has been fitted with an ankle monitor and told to report to ICE every week as an alternative to detention.
“I am grateful to God for being with me during this hard time, and for having my husband and family supporting me,” Ms. Ramos said.
“I feel awesome. Relieved,” Sergeant Blank said. “These have been the worst days of my life.”
The detention came just days after Ms. Ramos, a college student with no criminal record, and Sergeant Blank celebrated their marriage with family and friends in Houston, where she grew up.
Early Monday, the family and other supporters frantically called ICE offices, to try to prevent Ms. Ramos from being deported.
They failed to reach anyone who would assist, Sergeant Blank said….
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She had also applied for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which protects from deportation many undocumented people brought to the United States as children. But new applications have not been processed by the Trump administration.
Now reunited, Sergeant Blank said he was focused on his future with Ms. Ramos.
“I’m complete and ready to serve our country,” he said. “And it’s her country, too.”….
image….Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank and his wife, Annie Ramos, after she was released from immigration detention in Basile, La., on Tuesday.Credit…Lily Brooks for The New York Times
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