ICE Detains Soldier's Wife at Military Base While Couple Sought Green Card

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained the wife of an active-duty U.S. Army soldier at a Louisiana military base on April 2, arresting her while the couple was attempting to complete paperwork for her military spouse ID and green card application.

Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, and his wife Annie Ramos, 22, were at Fort Polk to register her as a military dependent when ICE agents entered the facility and took her into custody, according to Blank's mother and attorney Jessie Schreier.

Ramos is now being held at an ICE detention facility in Basile, Louisiana, facing deportation under a removal order issued in 2005 -- when she was 20 months old.

A Toddler's Deportation Order

Ramos was born in Honduras and entered the United States in February 2005 as an infant. When her family failed to appear for an immigration hearing that April, an immigration judge issued a final removal order against her. She was not yet two years old.

Schreier confirmed that Ramos had applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program that protects people brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. Her application remains on hold due to ongoing legal challenges to the program.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News that Ramos "has no legal status to be in this country and was issued a final order of removal by a judge," citing the missed hearing and removal order from nearly two decades ago.

Detained While Seeking Legal Status

Blank said in a statement released by TheDream.US that he had been working to complete the process for his wife to obtain a military ID and begin applying for a green card through their marriage. Military spouses are typically eligible for expedited immigration processing.

The couple was at the military installation specifically to pursue legal channels for Ramos to remain in the country when ICE agents intervened.

Schreier warned that the removal order "could be carried out at any time," meaning Ramos could be deported to Honduras despite her marriage to an active-duty service member and her decades of residence in the United States.

Pattern of Military Family Detentions

The detention highlights how immigration enforcement under the Trump administration has targeted even military families attempting to navigate the legal immigration system. ICE agents entering a military base to arrest the spouse of an active-duty soldier represents an escalation in enforcement tactics that previously exempted military installations from routine immigration operations.

Blank is continuing efforts to secure his wife's release. The case underscores the precarious legal status of DACA applicants whose cases remain in limbo due to court challenges, and the harsh reality that even marriage to a U.S. citizen -- let alone a service member -- provides no protection from detention and deportation when removal orders are involved.

For Ramos, a removal order issued before she could walk may now separate her from her husband and the country where she has lived her entire remembered life.