The Associated Press found that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. service members since the start of Donald Trump's second term. At least six have been deported, and one more left the country voluntarily. At least eight people remain in custody.

The government does not keep exact statistics — AP analyzed thousands of court documents and noted that the real number of cases is likely significantly higher.

For decades, close relatives of military personnel were effectively protected from deportation — a practice upheld by administrations of both parties. Now they are held in custody for months, even when they try to legalize their status through mechanisms designed specifically for military families, including the parole-in-place program. Under Trump, the average processing time for this document has more than doubled, to 12 months.

Detentions often occur right at appointments at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The wife of Army Sergeant Edar Leonel Turcios Juarez was detained at the entrance to a Walmart hypermarket in front of their six-year-old daughter. The mother of Marine Corporal Jose Manuel Vilchis-Valle was detained at a legalization appointment and then deported to Mexico within a week — even though she had lived in the U.S. since the 1990s and had no criminal record.

Experts warn that such detentions undermine the army's combat readiness. Service members are left without support and without someone to care for their children: some have had to take leave or postpone deployments. Staff Sergeant Alexis Jaramillo went on administrative leave to care for his five-year-old stepson alone after his Brazilian wife was detained. One servicewoman canceled a deployment when her husband was detained — there was no one to look after their five-year-old son.

Dan Gividen, who served as deputy chief counsel at ICE from 2016 to 2019, said that at the time the agency almost never detained close relatives of military personnel unless they had committed violent crimes. "We just didn't start deportation proceedings against them, period. This is madness. That they are doing this now is outrageous," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security told AP that "service in the U.S. military does not, by itself, confer lawful immigration status." Meanwhile, courts regularly side with detainees: U.S. judges have ruled ICE agents' actions unlawful in 10,400 of the 11,600 cases reviewed involving placement of foreigners in deportation detention.