ICE detains wife of US veteran in latest detention of military spouse

The ICE detainment of a US Army veteran's wife on Wednesday marks the latest case of a US military spouse taken into custody over immigration status.

Arelys Barahona Martinez was detained after a scheduled immigration appointment in Dallas, Texas, then sent to a detention facility in Oklahoma, ICE records show.

She is originally from Honduras and first crossed the US border in 2005. She later left the US, but returned in 2018.

"I just don't understand, we have a family here, and they're breaking us up," her husband, retired Staff Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, told the BBC. "They're breaking my family up. She's my backbone."

The couple lives in Princeton, Texas, and married in 2020.Barahona Martinez has a 20-year-old son, Trujillo, 45, told the BBC. He also has two daughters from a previous marriage.

A DHS spokesperson confirmed Barahona Martinez's arrest, noting she illegally entered the US in 2005 and was subsequently released.

Barahona Martinez "received full due process and was issued a final order of removal from an immigration judge on November 2, 2005," the DHS spokesperson said. "The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the US."

On Wednesday, Trujillo took Barahona Martinez to an immigration check-in, and waited while she met with immigration officers.

"To us, it was as a regular check-up day, we were always doing everything by the book," Trujillo told the BBC. "I told her to do everything by the book. I'm by-the-book, I've been brought up military."

"We thought everything was fine, until an officer came out and said, 'Your wife is not leaving today'," said Trujillo, who served in the US Army and Texas National Guard for nearly 20 years before retiring in 2021. He also did two tours in Iraq.

Barahona Martinez, 40, eventually called her husband and attorney, Mark Shmueli, from the office.

"I'm stuck here, I don't know what to do," Trujillo told the BBC on Wednesday, as he waited in the office parking lot for news. "They don't let me see her."

An order of removal was issued for Barahona Martinez after she illegally crossed the US southern border in 2005, Shmueli told the BBC, adding that she was unaware of the order at the time.

In 2018, after she returned, again crossing into the US illegally, immigration authorities granted Barahona Martinez a supervised release. She does not appear to have a criminal record in the US, according to public documents, which her husband confirmed.

Barahona Martinez and Trujillo met at a nightclub in2019. He asked her to dance, he told the BBC, and she told him to ask again in 15 minutes.

"Those 15 minutes went by, and we danced. And ever since we danced, we've been together," Trujillo said. "We always laugh about it: 'I'm glad I gave you those 15 minutes.'"

After they married, Barahona Martinez applied for the parole in place programme, which allows people who enter the US without permission to stay, and obtain residency.

However, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rejected the application in November 2024, during the Biden administration.

Because Barahona Martinez still had an active order of removal from 2005, the agency said the request needed to go through ICE instead. Shmueli has been working to have the 2005 order rescinded, to eliminate a key obstacle for her to stay in the US.

Shmueli has now filed a motion in a Texas court to prevent her deportation until a judge hears the case, he told the BBC. ICE acknowledged the motion to Shmueli on Friday and indicated her case could be eligible for a stay.

"I didn't expect this to happen to her yesterday," Shmueli told the BBC. "I don't understand why after all this time, why they detained her. Because I've seen the opposite with military folks."

Barahona Martinez is at least the third military spouse in recent months whom ICE has detained during a scheduled appointment.

In April, ICE detained and later released Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of an active-duty US Army solider in El Paso, Texas, after she and her husband went to interview for the parole-in-place programme.

DHS said that Rivera Ortega was a "criminal illegal alien from El Salvador" who committed a "federal offence" by entering the US illegally via the southern border in 2016.

ICE also detained Annie Ramos, the newlywed wife of an active duty US soldier, in April when she and her husband went to obtain her military ID. She spent five days in detention before her release. Ramos is an undocumented immigrant who came to the US as a toddler, and DHS has said she not have legal status.

Immigration advocates, as well as ICE's own memorandums and recent detentions, suggest a shift in the government's posture towards noncitizen family of US service members. President Donald Trump also has set ambitious deportation goals, with an increasingly strict interpretation of US immigration laws.

During the Biden administration, ICE issued a directive that active service by noncitizens' immediate family was a "significant mitigating factor" in enforcement decisions.

"Basically: You better have a good reason for arresting the spouse of a military member if you do," said Rachel Girod, an immigration attorney.

But in April 2025, under the Trump administration, ICE superseded the Biden-era directive. A new memorandum includes guidance for active duty military, but does not mention family members.

"DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the US military," a DHS spokesperson told BBC in a statement.

"US military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating immigration laws."

Its subsidiary, USCIS, has provisions to expedite naturalisation for military family members.

In a letter to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that between January 2025 and January 2026, USCIS issued 113 notices to appear – charging documents that initiate removal proceedings - to immediate relatives of former US service members who had their parole in place requests denied.

The government denied family members for reasons such as a failure to prove a legitimate relationship, criminal records or posing a risk to the public, DHS stated.

ICE does not track related data, but the agency told Warren, "A total of 282 aliens comprised of both former members of the US Armed forces and their immediate family members were placed in removal proceedings."

Trujillo, a naturalised US citizen originally from Colombia, told the BBC that he was "proud to be a Texan, and American."

Yet his wife's detention left him "speechless," he said. "I know I'm not the only service member going through this."

"She's trying to be an example to all other immigrants that want a better life here," Trujillo said. "It boggles me that they're not giving us that chance."