An Associated Press investigation published August 5, 2026 found that the Trump administration has detained more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. service members as part of its mass-deportation drive, with at least six deported and one who self-deported. At least eight immediate family members of troops remained in federal immigration custody when the story ran. The government does not track these cases; the AP built its count of 52 from federal habeas records, media coverage and interviews with families and attorneys, and said the real number is likely much higher.
Many were detained at immigration appointments or while trying to adjust their status through “military parole-in-place,” a program implemented in 2007 under George W. Bush and codified under Barack Obama that lets the close relatives of service members obtain legal status from inside the country. For decades, under both parties, the immediate families of troops were generally shielded from deportation. The Marine Corps stopped advertising enlistment as a way to protect immigrant family members in June 2025, but Army and National Guard recruiters still promote it.
Dan Gividen, ICE's deputy chief counsel from 2016 to 2019, told the AP, “We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That's insane.” A policy implemented in April 2025 states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.” DHS said it values the contributions of those who served, and told the AP that at least seven of the people had been removed before, at least eight had removal orders, and at least two had drunken-driving or drug-related convictions.
In one case the AP documented, the wife of Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, who is stationed at Fort Bliss, was detained outside a Walmart on July 11 in front of the couple's six-year-old daughter. Cristy Maryori Villafranca Trejo, who has no known criminal record, had a 2017 removal order issued after she missed a hearing, and her appeal and a parole-in-place application were pending. She was deported to Honduras on August 24, which the AP counted as at least the seventh deportation of a troop's spouse or parent. Another wife in the AP's report, Maisa Lopes Eliaser, was kept aboard a deportation flight to Brazil and flown back, then released in August; Sen. Mark Kelly had contacted the ICE field office handling her case (see The ACLU Files 54 Claims Across 17 States Alleging a Nationwide Pattern of ICE Abuse, the First Step Toward Suing the Government).
Correction (October 2, 2026): The entry quoted Dan Gividen as saying “We would not place them into removal proceedings. That's insane”; he said “We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That's insane.” It attributed the “military service alone” language to an ICE policy, while the AP describes it only as a policy implemented in April 2025. It said the military still advertises the benefits, but the Marine Corps stopped in June 2025, and only Army and National Guard recruiters still do. The entry now adds DHS's account of the detainees' records.