23-year-old Matthew Blank and his newly wed wife Annie Ramos arrived at the Louisiana base where Matthew was about to start his training for deployment as an Army staff sergeant. But ICE arrested his 22-year-old wife, calling her an undocumented Honduran who entered the US illegally when she was a toddler. Blank said he knew that his wife did not have proper documents but they said they hired a lawyer before their marriage to ensure that she could obtain citizenship. Blank said Ramos was handcuffed and dragged and is now being held at a detention center for possible deportation. They got married in March, the NYT reported.
“Our plan was to drive over, bring her to the office to get her military ID and activate her military spouse benefits,” such as health and life insurance, Banks said. “She was going to move in after the Easter weekend. Instead, she got ripped away from me.”
Arrested as she attempted to enter a military base
The Department of Homeland Security said Ramos was arrested after "she attempted to enter a military base". “She has no legal status to be in this country and was issued a final order of removal by a judge,” the statement read. “This administration is not going to ignore the rule of law.”
Ramos had applied in 2020 for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, a program that protects undocumented people brought to the US as children from deportation. Her application was never processed by the Trump administration because the program was halted for new applicants.
On April 2, the newly wed couple and Blank's parents drove to the base as they had an appointment at 2pm. They presented Ramos's birth certificate, Honduran passport, their marriage license and Sergeant Blank's military ID for official work. An official asked them for Ramos's visa or Green Card. They informed that their lawyer was preparing for a Green Card application. The attendant got alarmed and started making a flurry of calls, which resulted in agents dragging the wife out of the office.
