Tag Archives: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

Newsweek: ICE deports Army sergeant’s wife—”They’re taking Shirly”

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The wife of a U.S. Army sergeant was detained in March by federal immigration agents outside her workplace in Texas before being deported to Honduras last month.

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This case, first highlighted by the nonprofit military news outlet The War Horse, highlights the impact of immigration enforcement on U.S. military families, which lack guaranteed protection from detention or deportation. According to the advocacy group Fwd.us, as many as 80,000 undocumented spouses or parents of military personnel may currently reside in the United States.

Military Parole in Place is a discretionary program that allows undocumented spouses, parents, or children of U.S. military members—including active-duty, Selected Reserve, or honorably discharged veterans—to remain in the country temporarily and avoid deportation. It also provides a lawful entry record (“parole”) that can help eligible individuals apply for a green card without leaving the U.S.

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Guardado entered the U.S. without authorization in 2014 at age 16. She was apprehended at the border and issued an expedited removal order. After later marrying Correa, she sought legal residency through a process available to immediate relatives of active-duty service members.

According to Mother Jones and FOX 26 Houston, Correa’s petition was approved in 2023 by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), but the existing removal order complicated the case.

On March 13, 2025, Guardado was asked to step outside her office by individuals identifying themselves as Department of Public Safety officers. She was instead detained by ICE and transported to a detention facility in Conroe, Texas. Correa was not immediately notified and only learned her location after three days, when Guardado contacted him from detention.

https://www.newsweek.com/ice-deports-army-sergeant-wife-shirly-guardado-2086564

Newsweek: Marine veteran says wife detained by ICE at green card interview

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Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained the wife of a Marine veteran during a green card interview in New Orleans, according to the veteran and his attorney.

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Adrian and Paola Clouatre married in California in 2022. The Marine met his wife while in the last of five years of military service.

Now residing in Louisiana, they had been working through the legal process to secure Paola Clouatre’s U.S. residency. The couple, who have two young children including a 9-week-old daughter, were surprised by ICE’s intervention that stemmed from a years-old deportation order.

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Paola Clouatre, a Mexican national, entered the U.S. as a minor. She was 14 when she came to the country with her mother, who applied for asylum but failed to arrive for a trial on that claim two years later, according to NOLA.com.

The couple reportedly learned of this order days before their green card appointment in May, when they truthfully disclosed the situation on government forms.

“She knew she had to do it,” Adrian Clouatre told NOLA.com. “She was very fearful about all this, but also very hopeful.”

Near the end of his five-year service, he took her to a green card interview, where she was detained.

https://www.newsweek.com/marine-green-card-ice-immigration-detained-2086677

Explicame: Social Security benefits suspended for thousands for three months

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Thousands of legal immigrants in the United States are currently facing an unexpected suspension in the issuance of their Social Security numbers, which has halted their access to jobs, basic services, and benefits. This situation stems directly from the suspension of the Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) program by the Social Security Administration (SSA) on March 19, 2025, a decision that has generated chaos and indignation.

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The SSA announced a temporary 90-day suspension of the EBE for those submitting forms I-765 and N-400. Although no prior public notice was given, the pause appears to be linked to an April 2025 memorandum from the Trump administration, which seeks to prevent undocumented immigrants from accessing Social Security benefits, despite the lack of significant evidence of fraud.

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The absence of this number prevents opening joint bank accounts, obtaining driver’s licenses, or renting homes, complicating their social and economic integration. The change will force approximately 1.93 million people annually to personally visit SSA offices, which are already facing staff shortages and frequent closures. Issuing a Social Security number in person costs $55.80 per application, compared to the $8 it cost to process it automatically through the EBE.

Seven times the cost for service that sucks — sounds like a real Trumper to me!

Social Security benefits suspended for thousands for three months
The Social Security Administration (SSA) has suspended the Enumeration Beyond Entry (EBE) program, leaving thousands of legal immigrants without access to crucial Social Security numbers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/social-security-benefits-suspended-for-thousands-for-three-months/ar-AA1GkkOc

Newsweek: Green card holder in US for 50 years “in distress” as she faces deportation

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A green card holder who has lived in the United States for five decades is set to appear before an immigration judge in Seattle on Thursday in an effort to avoid deportation.

Lewelyn Dixon, known as “Auntie Lyn,” has spent the last three months in immigration detention after being stopped by federal agents after returning from a trip.

“She has been in distress trying to figure out what to say to the judge and how to explain why she deserves to stay in America, the only home she’s truly known since she was a child. The pressure is immense,” Her niece Melania Madriaga told Hawaii News Now.

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Dixon’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio, previously told Newsweek that the current issue stems from a single conviction dating back to 2001. According to Osorio, the conviction was for a nonviolent embezzlement offense, for which Dixon was sentenced to 30 days in a halfway house and fined $6,400. She was never required to serve time in jail or prison.

Green card holder in US for 50 years “in distress” as she faces deportation
Green card holder Lewelyn Dixon will appear before an immigration judge in Seattle on Thursday in an effort to avoid deportation.

https://www.newsweek.com/lewelyn-dixon-green-card-holder-immigration-hearing-2078436

Politico: The Pro-Trump Cuban Rapper About to Be Deported

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The predicament of the rapper known as ‘El Funky’ reveals the deeply conflicted anti-Castro and pro-Trump politics of South Florida.

In 2021, like many Cubans and Cuban Americans that summer, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was jamming to “Patria y Vida,” the Grammy-winning protest anthem that became a rallying cry for dissidents in Cuba. The hip-hop song, whose title translates to “Homeland and Life,” directly rebuked Fidel Castro’s revolutionary slogan, “Patria o Muerte” — “Homeland or Death.” That was a cause that resonated with Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, so much that in 2023, he introduced the “Patria y Vida Act,” “protecting against Tyrants” and expanding internet service in Cuba.

Now, one of the song’s central voices, Cuban rapper Eliéxer Márquez Duany — better known as El Funky — faces removal from the United States. Earlier this month, U.S. immigration authorities denied Márquez Duany’s residency application under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. He has less than 30 days to leave the U.S. or face deportation and likely imprisonment in Cuba, since his music helped fuel the largest anti-government protests in Cuba in decades.

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Márquez Duany’s journey from resistance icon to deportation case began in February 2021, when he and other artists released “Patria y Vida.” The song, featuring rappers and musicians both on and off the island, denounced repression in Cuba and called for change. Two of its creators, Maykel Osorbo and Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, are currently in prison in Cuba for their participation in the project and other protests. Meanwhile, the song’s banned status on the island only amplified its power: It became the de facto anthem of the unprecedented protests during the summer of 2021.

By then, Márquez Duany had already been under house arrest for months, kept from participating in the demonstrations by guards posted outside his home. When the Latin Grammy Awards sent him an invitation a few months later, Márquez Duany knew it was likely his only chance to escape. As is customary, a Cuban government official escorted him to the airport.

“What we want is for you to leave,” he says the official told him. “Go, but don’t come back because you’re not welcome here.”

Once in Miami, Márquez Duany married a Cuban American, found a maintenance job at a Christian school, and kept recording music. He applied to adjust his legal status under the CAA, which allows Cubans paroled into the U.S. to claim permanent residency after one year.

He assumed the law still stood firmly behind him. But the ground had already shifted.

The Pro-Trump Cuban Rapper About to Be Deported
The predicament of the rapper known as ‘El Funky’ reveals the deeply conflicted anti-Castro and pro-Trump politics of South Florida.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/05/23/hes-a-pro-trump-rapper-and-a-cuban-dissident-the-trump-administration-is-deporting-him-anyway-00367085