By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, April 7 (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier’s wife who was detained by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency last week was released from detention on Tuesday while President Donald Trump’s administration attempts to deport her from the country.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, said Annie Yaritza Ramos Alvarado was arrested on April 2, with a DHS spokesperson saying “she has no legal status to be in this country.”
Ramos, 22, recently married Sergeant Matthew Blank, 23.
On April 2, the couple were joined by relatives at Fort Polk, Louisiana, who were there to help register Ramos as a military spouse and get her moved in, Blank’s mother, Jen Rickling, told ABC News. However, ICE agents entered the facility and detained her.
The DHS spokesperson said ICE arrested Ramos “after she attempted to enter a military base.” The spokesperson alleged Ramos was in the country illegally, having entered the nation in early 2005 when she was less than two years old.
Attorney Jessie Schreier was cited by ABC News as saying that Ramos, who was born in Honduras, was 20 months old when she was issued an order of removal. The attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ICE has been at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation drive that has been widely condemned by rights groups as violating free speech and due process rights. Rights advocates say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment and caused concerns of racial profiling.
Trump has said his actions are aimed at curbing illegal immigration and improving domestic security. The crackdown has faced judicial roadblocks.
The DHS spokesperson said Ramos had been released on order of supervision with a GPS monitor while she undergoes further removal proceedings and she would receive full due process.
“All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby,” Ramos said in a statement cited by ABC News.
“I never imagined that trying to do the right thing – registering my wife so she could receive her military ID, access the benefits she is entitled to as my spouse, and begin the process toward her green card – would lead to her being taken away from me,” her husband said after her arrest.
In the statement, cited by ABC News, Blank said he was proud of his wife and proud to “serve this country.”
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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