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.
Does marriage to a citizen no longer make you a citizen? Did I miss that part?
It may make becoming a citizen easier, but no it doesn’t automatically make you one. Not in the US at least.
I don’t think it ever did. It does qualify you for legal residency status, resident alien or “green card” as most people refer to it. I’m pretty sure that status can be voided if you did anything illegal along the way. For citizen status you still have to go through the process.
I am going through this process right now.
Once we are married (very soon) she will apply for a change of status to CR1 Visa (Temporary Residency for a spouse of an American citizen)
From that point you have 2 years to finalize application for a Green Card (permanent residency)
Once she has her Green Card, so long as she isn’t a criminal breaking any laws (non immigration related, felony shit) then she is a legal, permanent, resident.
You then have to maintain that Green Card status for a minimum of 3 YEARS to then apply for full or dual citizenship. (Though you apply 90 days before that 3 year mark arrives)