Trump Crackdown Detains 50+ Military Family Members

President Donald Trump’s administration has detained more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. service members since the start of his second term, according to an Associated Press investigation. The first accounting of such detentions reveals a significant policy shift from decades of bipartisan consensus that generally shielded military families from deportation.

At least six family members have been deported and one self-deported, while at least eight immediate relatives of U.S. troops remain in federal immigration custody. The actual number is likely much higher, as the Department of Homeland Security does not compile data on these cases. The AP obtained its findings by analyzing thousands of federal court records compiled by Habeas Dockets, a project run by the Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative, and by verifying information with family members and attorneys.

A Reversal of Longstanding Protections

Parents and spouses of military personnel have generally been shielded from deportation under bipartisan consensus for decades. But the AP found they are now routinely being detained for months as they try to adjust their legal status through policies available to service members’ close relatives. A new policy implemented in April 2025 states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”

Experts in military immigration law say this marks a stark departure from previous administrations, including Trump’s own first term. Dan Gividen, who served as ICE’s deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019 under Trump, represents a soldier’s father who has been in ICE custody for more than eight months. He said that during his time as an ICE prosecutor, immigration authorities rarely detained service members’ immediate family members unless they had committed violent crimes.

“We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That’s insane,” Gividen said. “The fact that they’re doing it now is just outrageous.”

Military Families Losing Their Safety Nets

The detentions have disrupted military households across the country, leaving service members without emotional support and caretakers for their children. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Wendy Gbeve, 30, said she hasn’t had a good night’s sleep since her father, Luis Alberto Ramirez Zavala, was detained by immigration officials last month. Gbeve was present when he was arrested at a routine interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Missouri about his pending application for legal status.

“It’s the most frustrating, helpless feeling,” Gbeve said.

Ramirez Zavala’s wife of 30 years, a legal permanent resident, is considering returning to Mexico to be with her husband. For Gbeve, whose husband is also in the Air Force, that would leave no one to watch their children, ages 2 and 4, if both were deployed. “That would be our entire safety net,” she said.

Some service members have been left caring for children alone. Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, an aviation operations specialist who has served for more than a decade, is on administrative leave from Fort Polk, Louisiana, caring for his 5-year-old stepson after his Brazilian wife, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, was detained in early July during what the family thought was a routine appointment at a USCIS office in Alabama.

“It is really overwhelming because I need to take care of my kid by myself. No one is here to help me out,” Jaramillo said.

At least one active-duty soldier halted her imminent deployment after her husband was detained by immigration officers, leaving no one to care for their then-5-year-old son, court records show. A judge eventually ordered the husband released.

Contradiction in Military Recruitment

Military recruiters continue to advertise immigration benefits for troops’ families as a selling point to enlist, even as the administration detains the very family members those benefits are meant to protect. One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children, and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country.

The policy was implemented under Republican President George W. Bush during the U.S. war with Iraq in 2007 and codified under Democratic President Barack Obama. Under Trump, the average processing time has more than doubled to 12 months, leaving military families more vulnerable to being placed in ICE custody.

Marine Cpl. Jose Manuel Vilchis-Valle’s mother, Ursula Borja Valle, was detained at an appointment in August 2025 and deported to Mexico within a week. She had lived in the U.S. since the 1990s without a known criminal record. Her son was attempting to help her clear up a decades-old removal order through the immigration benefits that military recruiters had used to help persuade him to enlist.

“They basically told me that if you serve, and if you served honorably, you can help your parents,” said Vilchis-Valle, 23, who was honorably discharged shortly after his mother was deported. “In a perfect world, I wished, because of my service, they could have pardoned her.”

In June 2025, the Marine Corps officially stopped advertising enlistment as a way to protect immigrant family members in response to inquiries from the AP. But recruiters for the Army and the National Guard still promote it. “For some service members, enlisting isn’t just about serving their country,” read an Instagram post published in late July by an official Army recruiter based in California. “It’s also about doing everything they can to help protect their parents who sacrificed everything for them.”

Broader Implications for Military Readiness

Experts warn that the detentions could undermine military preparedness, particularly as the U.S. is at war in Iran. Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, said previous administrations generally allowed military families to regularize their immigration status to ensure service members remained focused on their duties.

“It’s the same thing that happens if you don’t provide healthcare to the troops, or you don’t provide housing to the troops,” she said. If soldiers are preoccupied with detained or deported family, “they’re not concentrating on their job anymore.”

Even some congressional Republicans who are otherwise largely supportive of Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown have pushed for the release of service members’ relatives. “The immigration system is failing the honorable and good Americans,” Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar said at a news conference in July advocating for the release of the wife of retired Staff Sgt. Wilmer Trujillo, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

DHS has released figures for former service members, who also qualify for immigration benefits along with their immediate families. From Jan. 20, 2025, through Jan. 26, 2026, immigration authorities detained 125 military veterans — placing 34 into removal proceedings — and arrested more than 150 immediate family members, according to DHS data reported by the AP.

A Soldier’s Regret

For U.S. Army Specialist Romero Ralios, his father’s detention has left him remorseful about his deployment last year to the Joint Task Force Southern Border, where he spent nine months supporting U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. His father, Sebastian Ralios Tino, a Guatemalan landscaper with no known criminal record, was detained this summer after living in the U.S. for nearly two decades without legal status.

Ralios’ commanding officer, Capt. Mohamed Elmaola, told the AP he wanted to speak up because Ralios is a “phenomenal soldier” whose father should receive due process. “It’s very hard to communicate and to have credibility as a leader when your own subordinates are unable to get support,” Elmaola said.

Romero Ralios struggles to sleep at night due to the stress and wishes he had not been involved in immigration enforcement, even though he was just following orders. “It was karma. I should’ve known,” Ralios told the AP. “All those families I broke. I have regrets.”

What’s Next

The AP investigation raises critical questions about the full scope of the problem, given that the government does not track these cases. DHS defended its approach, stating: “DHS and ICE value the contributions of all those who have served in the U.S. military. U.S. military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.” The Pentagon declined to comment.

As the administration continues its mass deportation agenda, the tension between military recruitment practices and immigration enforcement remains unresolved. Whether the administration will modify its policy in response to pressure from Congress and military leadership — and how these detentions will affect recruitment and retention among immigrant communities — are questions that will shape the debate in the months ahead. The story, as reported by AP News and syndicated through Yahoo News, has drawn international attention, with outlets like the Times of India and Economic Times covering the fallout.