ICE detained Fort Polk soldier's wife at Alabama green-card interview, enforcing a removal order she never received notice of

On July 8, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Maisa Lopes Eliaser, the Brazilian-born wife of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, during a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services status interview in Montgomery, Alabama that the family believed was the final step in adjusting her immigration status. An immigration officer separated Eliaser from Jaramillo and their five-year-old son, Noah, before telling Jaramillo his wife had been detained. Eliaser, who arrived in the U.S. from São Paulo, Brazil on a visa in 2019 and married Jaramillo while her asylum application was pending, had missed a biometrics fingerprinting appointment in April 2026; an immigration judge subsequently issued a removal order against her in absentia.

According to the family's immigration attorney, Anna Hubbard, notice of that biometrics appointment and the resulting hearing was mailed to a prior address Eliaser had listed on her asylum application rather than the family's current address — the family had transferred from Fort Rucker, Alabama to Fort Polk, Louisiana only weeks before the July 8 interview and says it never received the notice. Hubbard also said that under current DHS policy, missing a single biometrics appointment now triggers a mandatory immigration-court appearance and can produce a removal order, a change from practice under the prior administration. The detention follows DHS's April 2025 rescission of a policy that had treated military family members' status leniently.

Eliaser is held at the South Louisiana Correctional Center in Basile while Jaramillo, on administrative leave from his post at Fort Polk to care for their son, pursues the case with hired counsel. ICE did not respond to requests for comment from local media. Jaramillo said the family is "not breaking the law" but trying to comply with it, and has appealed publicly to lawmakers for help while his wife remains in custody.

Updates

2026-08-03 — Board of Immigration Appeals denied stay of deportation pending appeal [3]

The Board of Immigration Appeals denied the family's request to pause Eliaser's deportation while it considers their appeal of the removal order, according to Hubbard, meaning ICE can remove her at any time even as the appeal remains active. Hubbard said that if deported, Eliaser could be barred from reentering the U.S. for at least a decade while the family's only remaining option would be an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

2026-08 — Attorney filed motion to reopen case as ICE sought travel documents [1]

Jaramillo's attorney filed a motion to reopen Eliaser's removal case with the immigration judge, which — once submitted — halts deportation while the judge reviews it, according to immigration attorney Michael Gahagan, who is not involved in the case. Gahagan said ICE was separately contacting Brazil's consulate to obtain travel documents to carry out the deportation, and that no further hearings were scheduled beyond the judge's existing removal order.

2026-08-12 — ICE removed Eliaser from deportation flight, returned her to Louisiana [4]

On August 12, 2026, ICE placed Eliaser on a deportation flight to Brazil; mid-flight, ICE officers received an unidentified phone call and removed her from the plane rather than completing the deportation, returning her to Louisiana the same day. The reversal came after AP reporting on dozens of military spouses and parents detained amid the administration's rollback of protections for military families prompted a Congressional Democrats' investigation that Jaramillo said included Sen. Mark Kelly's office, along with advocacy from the group Repatriate Our Patriots. Eliaser had another appointment scheduled for the following Monday to seek to reopen her case and advance her green-card application.