After nearly two months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, Paola Clouatre, 25, secured her release from a Louisiana detention center this week following an intervention from an unlikely source: a Republican lawmaker who has allied himself with President Trump.
Officials who work in the office of Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, requested that the Department of Homeland Security release Ms. Clouatre from detention after an immigration judge halted her deportation order, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times.
Ms. Clouatre, a Mexican citizen, had been detained by ICE agents on May 27 while she was at a routine appointment in New Orleans related to her application for a green card and permanent resident status.
Ms. Clouatre first entered the United States as a teenager to seek asylum with her mother and brother. The family was processed at the border in Tijuana, according to Ms. Clouatre and her lawyer, and was granted parole, which allows migrants to remain temporarily in the country. In 2018, Ms. Clouatre’s mother failed to show up for a court hearing in California, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Ms. Clouatre.
By then, Ms. Clouatre was homeless and estranged from her mother, she said. She did not discover the deportation order until earlier this year, when she was already in the process of applying for a green card. Ms. Clouatre is married to Adrian Clouatre, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with whom she has two young children.
Ms. Clouatre’s apprehension came amid growing pressure from the White House to ramp up arrests to fulfill Mr. Trump’s pledge of mass deportations. ICE agents have raided farms, swept through factories and targeted immigration courthouses across the country, in some cases arresting immigrants as they attend routine hearings.
Mr. Kennedy, the junior Louisiana senator, has been a vocal supporter of these efforts, appearing on conservative radio shows and cable television to decry sanctuary cities and applaud ICE agents’ enforcement.
“If you’re in our country illegally, you’re a criminal,” Mr. Kennedy said during a July 17 Fox News interview. “Illegal immigration is illegal, duh.”
So the Clouatres were surprised to learn that people in his office were fighting to reunite their family.
In an email on Tuesday morning, Christy Tate, the constituent services representative in Mr. Kennedy’s office, wrote to Mr. Clouatre to confirm that his wife had been released from ICE custody after her office had made a formal request to the federal agency.
“I am so happy for you and your family,” Ms. Tate wrote. “We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers.”
Ms. Tate did not respond to phone calls or emails, and representatives of Mr. Kennedy’s office did not reply to a request for comment from The Times.
Ms. Clouatre was released from a north Louisiana detention center on Monday and is back home with her family in Baton Rouge. She is wearing an ankle monitor and awaits a court date to continue immigration proceedings. Her lawyer, Carey Holliday, said she was likely to obtain a green card.
Mr. Holliday said he had contacted Mr. Kennedy’s office in June to tell staff members there about the family’s case and to ask for their support. He said he believed ICE had eventually released Ms. Clouatre because of mounting public pressure from sources including Mr. Kennedy’s office.
“It’s a very compelling case,” Mr. Holliday said. “This is someone who honorably served his country, was honorably discharged, and now the government wants to take his wife away. It’s not a good look.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, confirmed in an email that Ms. Clouatre had been released from ICE custody. She did not comment on what role, if any, Mr. Kennedy’s office had played in the case.
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
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