ICE Detains Military Spouse and Thousands of US Citizens' Family Members in Immigration Crackdown

Multiple recent cases illustrate the broad reach of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, which has ensnared immigrants with deep family ties to U.S. citizens and no violent criminal records. Bryan José Rojas Galofre, a Venezuelan asylum seeker married to a U.S. citizen, was detained for over three months after a security checkpoint stop at Trump National Doral in January 2025; his family lost their home, car, and savings during his detention. Arelys Barahona Martinez, wife of retired Army Staff Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, was detained at a routine immigration check-in in Dallas and transferred to an Oklahoma facility, despite having no U.S. criminal record. Orlin Carrasco, a Honduran national who entered the U.S. as an unaccompanied minor in 2013 and has no removal order or criminal convictions, was arrested at a Tennessee courthouse while paying traffic fees and has been held in Louisiana since March. ABC News analysis of ICE data shows more than 400,000 individuals with no violent criminal history were targeted in the first 14 months of the administration, including the parents of approximately 14,450 U.S.-born children in the first eight months of 2025 alone. DHS has defended the actions as lawful enforcement, stating that illegal entry itself constitutes a crime, while immigration attorneys and advocates argue the crackdown disproportionately harms families with strong community ties and no serious criminal history. A Biden-era ICE directive treating military family members' service as a significant mitigating factor in enforcement decisions was superseded by a Trump administration memorandum in April 2025 that omits mention of family members.