Let’s be real – ICE is going to be doing its thing as long as Trump remains in Office and has Adolph Eichman clone (The Boys From Brazil should be remade with Miller as the one being cloned) Stephen Miller at his side. However they’ve had to back down at times this year. Changes were made to try and tamp down criticism (even some Republicans voiced concerns ICE was out of control!) like dumping Bovino and Noem. Markwayne Mullin has attempted to soften their image but he’s still got ICE engaged in appalling practices. Still, they can when the spotlight is focused on certain cases be forced to reverse course and they just did so with a Military Spouse.
There are so many awful, appalling things ICE does but scheduling what in the past have been routine status visits to effect arrests, detentions and rapid deportations sticks out. These meetings are scheduled so that someone who hasn’t yet attained citizenship or gotten a Greed Card can prove they are following the rules/keeping out of trouble while their applications are being processed. Or provide additional documentation to move things along. However, as far as ICE is concerned ‘it ain’t over till it’s over’ and if that Green Card hasn’t been issued or someone is going in for the final approval of their citizenship application they are fair game for deportation. They call people in and then waiting agents arrest them and whisk them away!
For a fortunate few publicity and/or the intervention of someone with power and visibility ICE has shown, although not nearly often enough a willingness to back down and let someone stay/go home to their loved ones. As we learn from Raw Story ICE backed down and told someone in the middle of their deportation flight to Brazil she could come back to the U.S. on the return flight and go home if she wanted – because ‘she was famous’:
An Army soldier‘s wife was pulled off a deportation flight to Brazil this week by federal agents who explained she was “famous,” according to reports on Friday.
An Associated Press investigation identified Maisa Lopes Eliaser as one of dozens of military spouses and parents who had been detained following the Trump administration’s rollback of protections for military families as part of its broader mass deportation efforts, The Boston Globe reported.
Frankly, I hadn’t heard jack about this case until reading Raw Story’s article. Senator Kelly has been in the news lately and perhaps they feared he’d turn this into a story with legs. Perhaps given what our sailors (and Marines) on the ships in the Persian Gulf are going through more bad PR about treatment of Military families was something ICE decided is something they don’t need right now. Hell, I saw on my local news they are planning to buy a bunch of “Shock Gloves” – basically gloves that act like Tasers to a person being grabbed by someone wearing them. I shudder to think of the abuse that will ensue as these things become standard equipment but I digress.
Many of our Military are in the service to obtain their own citizenship, or meet someone while stationed abroad and fall in love. There’s a ton of paperwork involved to be able to bring a foreign spouse into the U.S. but it has been common for decades. Over time such spouses wind up either getting a Green Card or becoming citizens. It can take years in case you didn’t know, hence status hearings and so on. That takes me back to the point I made about how vile it is to use such meetings/hearings to lay in wait to arrest and deport our troop’s loved ones!
Eliaser’s husband, Staff Sergeant Alexis Jaramillo has served in the Army for 11 years and went public about what happened to his wife, who was ripped from his side during what the couple, their son and translator thought was an adjustment-of-status appointment on July 8 in Montgomery, Alabama.
Yet another case of ICE terrorizing an entire family as they rip it apart. What makes this case stand out is that mid-trip to Brazil ICE officers on the plane got a call about her specific case. Apparently the call included orders to make sure if she wanted to come back to the U.S. and return to her family they were to make it clear she could do so:
An ICE officer offered Eliaser the choice to returning to the U.S. Once the plane landed, other detainees were taken away and Eliaser stayed on and was taken back to Louisiana.
ICE officers reportedly told her she had become “famous” because footage related to her case was circulating online.
“Who made the call? We don’t know,” Jaramillo said. “But someone made the phone call, and then she came back.”
What matters is that ICE found out this was becoming a ‘thing’ online, and I’m sure someone like Senator Kelly getting involved made Mullin and others nervous. At least Elaiaser is back home with her family. But let’s face it – all is NOT well. Between the arrest in which she was literally torn away from her family, time in detention and then being marched onto the plane for the trip to Brazil she is traumatized. So is her family, even though they’ve been assured it’s all over:
Although he was told there would be no further issues with his wife’s case, Jaramillo is still worried. He said his wife was treated like “an animal” and has been struggling with sleep.
“It felt like I was in a nightmare,” Eliaser said. “I could not believe what was happening until I returned to my house. Day by day, I’m trying to recover from this trauma.”
Keep in mind we are talking about MILITARY families here. And it begs the question why it was a Democratic Senator from Arizona (a distinguished Veteran) instead of at least one of the two REPUBLICAN Senators from Louisiana where Ft. Polk (aka Ft. Puke) is located? Conservatives have for decades worn their little lapel pins and wrapped themselves in the flag and the public (and majority of our troops) have bought their bullshit. The cold, hard fact is that conservatives have damned near ever been the ones to bring about meaningful increases in Veteran’s benefits. They’ve fought it every step of the way and even things that have been touted lately about improving Veteran’s health care is (and I can personally attest to this) bullshit. It’s all a cleverly disguised way of killing off the VA Healthcare system and forcing everyone into private care.
Conservatives don’t care about active duty folks either. Housing and other facilities on too many bases isn’t what it should be. Not enough, or not in the condition it should be or both. Now we have all those sailors stuck at sea on too long deployments with equipment (like toilets and showers, and laundry services) breaking down, inadequate food and even mail service etc. It’s only in the last week or so it’s been getting serious attention in the news but the issue has been building for a while. Sailors tell loved ones back home what’s REALLY going on, and some of those loved ones have been telling friends and contacting their Congress Critters.
So again I say Mullin might have gotten a phone call or two from his former colleagues suggesting he ease up on targeting Military family members for deportation, at least for now. And that he should tell Stephen Miller to go perform a certain impossible anatomical act if he doesn’t like it.
At least we know that sometimes, not often enough but sometimes ICE can be cracked. We need to keep hitting it with the hammer of justice and decency until it splits wide open. Or take a blowtorch to it. Doing so CAN work.
Military support for Drumpf should’ve ended during his first term when he illegally diverted funding intended for various military issues (mainly for housing and other “basic” human needs) to go towards paying for his wall (that, don’t forget, was supposed to be paid for by Mexico). But it didn’t.