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BATON ROUGE, La. — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Paola Clouatre, wife of Marine Corps veteran Adrian Clouatre, during a routine green-card appointment in New Orleans last month, leaving her 3-month-old daughter without breastfeeding access.
Adrian, a service-disabled veteran, now cares for their two young children alone. When their nearly 2-year-old son Noah asks for his mother, Adrian tells him, “Mama will be back soon.” Their infant daughter, Lyn, who had been breastfeeding, is now fed formula—a substitution that Adrian fears may hinder their early bonding.
Unexpected Detention during Legal Process
Paola, 25, entered the U.S. over a decade ago with her mother, who sought asylum. In 2024 she married Adrian and began the process to obtain a green card. During a May 27 USCIS appointment, a deportation order issued in 2018—due to her mother’s missed hearing—was unexpectedly surfaced. After waiting in the lobby, ICE agents arrested her and took her to a rural detention center in Monroe. Paola had been unaware of the prior order.
Adrian described the arrest as shocking: his wife handed him her wedding ring before being taken away. “We tried to do the right thing,” he said. Their lawyer, former immigration judge Carey Holliday, condemned the action: “It’s just a hell of a way to treat a veteran.”
Policy Change Hurts Military Families
The Clouatres are challenging the deportation order; their case is now before a California-based immigration judge. Meanwhile, Adrian makes an eight-hour round-trip from Baton Rouge to Monroe to visit his wife whenever possible.
Previously, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offered military families more flexibility under “parole in place” policies. But a February 28 memo from the Trump administration abruptly removed such protections, discontinuing exceptions for military spouses like Paola. Since then, USCIS has referred over 26,000 cases for deportation.
Contradictory Messages— Recruitment vs. Enforcement
Despite ICE’s enforcement actions, Marine Corps recruiters have continued to promote enlistment as “protection from deportation” for undocumented family members. Immigration expert Margaret Stock calls this misleading, stating the administration no longer offers such guarantees.
Master Sgt. Tyler Hlavac, Marine Corps spokesperson, confirmed recruiters have been instructed: they are “not the proper authority” to promise immigration benefits to recruits or families.
A Family in Limbo
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin emphasized that Paola “is in the country illegally” and ICE must uphold the law. A recent USCIS post on X similarly warned that ignoring deportation orders is not tolerated—but Adrian and his attorney stress that Paola entered legally as a minor seeking asylum and was unaware of the removal order.
Adrian expressed heartbreak over the situation: “If she had been arrested, she would have been deported long ago, and we would never have met.”
As of now, Paola remains in detention, the couple awaits a judicial decision, and their children continue to struggle in her absence.
