ICE Arrested a Soldier’s Newlywed Wife at Fort Polk While She Tried to Register as a Military Spouse

FORT POLK, La. (KPEL News) — A 22-year-old newlywed spent five days in federal immigration detention after ICE agents arrested her inside a Louisiana military base where she and her husband, an active-duty Army staff sergeant, were trying to register her for a military ID.

Annie Ramos was released yesterday from an ICE facility in Basile, Louisiana, according to the Associated Press. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed she is now free on an order of supervision with a GPS monitor while removal proceedings move forward.

What started as a standard military check-in at Fort Polk has drawn national attention to how immigration enforcement now applies to the families of active-duty service members.

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How a Routine Base Registration Turned Into an ICE Arrest

On April 2, Staff Sgt. Matthew Blank, 23, drove from Houston to Fort Polk with Ramos, his mother Jen Rickling, and other relatives. The group arrived for a 2 p.m. appointment at the base’s visitor center to register Ramos as a military spouse, according to ABC News. The couple married in Houston in March.

Blank presented his military ID, their marriage certificate, and Ramos’ Honduran passport. An attendant asked Ramos whether she held a visa or green card. A series of calls followed. The New York Times first reported the details of the arrest, with Blank telling the outlet that an officer from the base’s criminal investigation division told the couple Ramos would be detained. Agents handcuffed her.

Blank’s plan was simple: get Ramos her military ID, activate her spouse benefits, and start the green card process. Marriage to a U.S. citizen can make an undocumented spouse eligible for permanent residency, though an existing removal order complicates that path.

The Removal Order That Started When She Was 20 Months Old

Ramos was born in Honduras and entered the United States in early 2005, when she was younger than two years old. Her family missed an immigration hearing that year, and a federal judge issued an in absentia removal order on April 7, 2005. Her attorney, Jessie Schreier, confirmed these details to ABC News.

That order, issued when Ramos was 20 months old, became the legal basis for her arrest more than two decades later.

DHS framed the arrest as routine enforcement. A spokesperson told reporters Ramos was arrested “after she attempted to enter a military base” and that “she has no legal status to be in this country.” The spokesperson added that Ramos crossed the southern border in February 2005, failed to appear for her hearing, and received a final order of removal.

Ramos applied for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals in 2020, but her application went nowhere. DACA remains halted for new applicants after a prolonged legal battle challenging the program. She received a scholarship from TheDream.US, a nonprofit that helps undocumented youth pay for college, and is studying biochemistry.

A Policy Shift That Removed Protections for Military Families

The arrest traces directly to a policy change by the Trump administration.

Last April, DHS eliminated a 2022 policy that treated military service of an immediate family member as a “significant mitigating factor” when deciding whether to pursue immigration enforcement. The new policy states that “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws,” according to CBS News.

Before that change, DHS allowed spouses of active-duty service members to gain legal status through programs like parole in place and deferred action. Military recruiters promoted those protections as an incentive for years. Margaret Stock, a military immigration law expert and author of Immigration Law and the Military, told NBC News that Ramos’ case would have been easy to resolve under the previous policy.

In September 2025, more than 60 members of Congress wrote to DHS and the Department of Defense, warning that arrests of military family members were “betraying its promises to service members who play a key role in protecting U.S. national security.”

Ramos Released After Five Days, But Removal Proceedings Continue

Ramos spent five days detained at the ICE facility in Basile before DHS released her yesterday. U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain, called DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin directly to advocate for her release.

DHS confirmed Ramos was released on an order of supervision with a GPS monitor. The government said it will continue removal proceedings and that Ramos “will receive full due process.”

Blank, who is preparing for what could be his third overseas deployment, said he will keep fighting for his wife.

What It Means for Military Families in Louisiana and Beyond

Fort Polk is one of the Army’s major training installations. Thousands of soldiers and their families live in and around the Vernon Parish community of Leesville. The base drives the local economy, and military families make up a core part of central Louisiana community life.

Lydiah Owiti-Otienoh, who runs the Foreign-Born Military Spouse Network, told CNN she has seen more cases where tightening immigration restrictions upend military family life. CBS News reported that Ramos’ case was the first reported instance of a military spouse being detained on a base.

A GoFundMe campaign the family set up to cover legal fees had raised more than $8,000, according to The Independent.

Ramos said in a statement after her release that she plans to continue her biochemistry studies and focus on securing her immigration status.

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