More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops have been detained, and at least six have been deported, in President Donald Trump’s massive crackdown on immigration.
At least eight immediate family members of service members are currently in ICE custody. The Associated Press found that many military family members have been detained during immigration appointments while applying for parole-in-place or seeking to adjust their legal status.
Parents and spouses of service members have generally been protected from deportation for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Experts say the move could have a negative impact on U.S. troops as they fight Trump’s war with Iran. Deporting family members can leave troops in emotional distress, without caretakers for their children and forces some to leave their posts to take care of their families or help with the immigration process.
“How can I even focus on my military career because I have to worry about how my wife is doing?” said Army Sgt. Hedar Leonel Turcios Juarez, whose wife was detained in front of their six-year-old daughter outside a Walmart in July while he was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas.
The change reflects the ruthlessness of Trump’s mass deportation agenda in his second term.
According to a new April 2025 policy, “military service alone does not exempt aliens from the consequences of violating U.S. immigration laws.”
Dan Gividen, who served as ICE’s deputy chief counsel under Trump in his first term, said it was uncommon for immigration authorities to detain service members’ immediate family members unless they had committed violent crimes.
“We would not place them into removal proceedings, period. That’s insane,” Gividen told the Associated Press. “The fact that they’re doing it now is just outrageous.”
One of the reasons why many join the U.S. military is because it offers a pathway to legal immigration status from within the country. The benefit, which the military itself advertises, extends to spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans.
The policy dates back to 2007, when President George W. Bush introduced it during the Iraq War.
“They basically told me that if you serve, and if you served honorably, you can help your parents,” said Vilchis-Valle, 23, who was honorably discharged shortly after his mother was deported. “In a perfect world, I wished, because of my service, they could have pardoned her.”
ICE historically canceled orders to detain parents or spouses of troop members or allowed them to adjust their legal status, Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve, explained.
“It’s the same thing that happens if you don’t provide healthcare to the troops, or you don’t provide housing to the troops,” she said. If soldiers are preoccupied with detained or deported family, “they’re not concentrating on their job anymore.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
