Summary
Wisconsin resident Bradley Bartell voted for Trump’s promise to crack down on “criminal illegal immigrants,” but now his Peruvian wife Camila Muñoz has been detained by ICE.
Muñoz, from Peru, overstayed her visa but had applied for legal residency. On their way home from a honeymoon, immigration agents detained her at a Puerto Rico airport.
Despite no criminal record, she remains in a Louisiana detention center. Her case reflects ICE’s broadened enforcement that now includes documented immigrants.
Bartell, once supportive of stricter immigration policies, now questions the impact on families like his own.
Apparently she got stuck in the States when all the borders were closed during the pandemic, which seems pretty reasonable grounds for overstaying.
But - she didn’t leave when the borders re-opened. She had fallen in love and at some point she filed paperwork to normalize her status - though they’re pretty coy about when they filled the papers, so I suspect that was done after the borders re-opened and she should have left.
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I’m also going to point out what I haven’t seen in any of the comments so far which is that, with ICE being pressured to increase the number of deportations, they’re opting to go for low-hanging fruit. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean raiding places that they’ve known for decades are hiring illegal immigrants, arresting and prosecuting and imprisoning the owners and managers.
It does mean that they’re hanging out at at least some airports, and it sounds like they’re running passenger lists ahead of time (because they knew exactly who to approach). I mean, why to go the trouble of driving out to some farm or factory in the middle of nowhere, trying to chase down people who know the area better than you ever will, when you can sit at a comfy air-conditioned desk and only bother to get up when the computer lets you know that your “target” is trying to check in for their flight?
Agree completely, and to me when people like these two decide to do whatever they want because their love is “special”, it shows ICE that hey, this is way easier and they’ll focus more on these situations. This puts all the completely legal and above board immigrants in danger now.