They Took Her Anyway

ICE Rips Breastfeeding Mother from U.S. Marine’s Family in New Orleans

A FAMILY FOLLOWED THE RULES. ICE FOLLOWED PROCEDURE. THAT’S THE PROBLEM.

There was no raid. No crime. No deception. Just Paola Clouatre, 25 years old, arriving at a scheduled immigration interview in New Orleans with her husband Adrian—a Marine Corps veteran—and their two children. They were there for a routine step in the process of applying for Paola’s Green Card. They were following the system, trusting that cooperation would count for something. But after the interview, they were told to wait. And instead of paperwork, three ICE agents entered and arrested Paola on the spot.

She didn’t try to run. She wasn’t hiding. She wasn’t even aware of the reason for her arrest until days earlier—when she and Adrian learned that Paola had been included in a 2018 deportation order issued in California after her mother missed an immigration hearing. Paola, still a teenager at the time, was swept into that order without knowing it. She had lived in the U.S. for over a decade, had married a U.S. Marine, had given birth to two children—and was now being taken away in front of them.

She’s being held at Richwood Correctional Center in Monroe, Louisiana—over 200 miles from home. According to Adrian, detainees at Richwood sleep in a cafeteria-style room on cots. Lights go out at 1 a.m. and come back on at 4. Meals are served at 4, 10, and 4 again—breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their youngest child, just nine weeks old, is still breastfeeding. So Adrian has been driving three and a half hours each way, with both of their children in the car, so the baby can nurse and the kids can see their mother. It is a brutal, daily ritual born from a decision that should never have happened.

“She had an ICE agent tell her on Friday that she was going to be deported this past weekend,” Adrian told local reporters at WBRZ. “There’s no discretion used in this process—it’s like a vacuum sucking people up.” And that’s exactly what happened. There was no hearing, no opportunity to fix the paperwork, no pause for the fact that Paola is the wife of a Marine or the mother of two American-born children. She was simply absorbed by a system that doesn’t blink.

The Clouatres had been trying to do everything right. While living in California, they had hired a paralegal to help begin the Green Card process. They filed paperwork. They made appointments. They showed up. But the original 2018 deportation order—a legal landmine buried under a mountain of bureaucracy—was never addressed. It detonated at their interview.

Now, former immigration judge Carey Holliday is helping them file an emergency motion to reopen Paola’s case. If granted, it could erase the removal order and allow her to continue her application for lawful residency. Holliday, who issued hundreds of removal orders during his career, was blunt: “It’s terrible they don’t make exceptions for this,” he said. “This young man served his country honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps, and now they’ve taken his wife. He’s left as a single parent for his two children. And there’s no reason for it—other than this is what we do. It’s bureaucracy at work.”

This isn’t a clerical error. It’s policy. A young woman went to her own immigration appointment and was arrested. Her husband is now left with diapers and court filings. Her newborn daughter is left hungry and confused. Her toddler son has learned, too early, what it means to wait in visiting rooms and drive long distances without understanding why. All of this because a system designed to “protect families” has no interest in protecting this one.

Time is running out. The motion to reopen Paola’s case is pending in Los Angeles. There is no guarantee she’ll still be in the country by the time it’s reviewed. Her deportation is not hypothetical. It was nearly carried out days ago.

If this can happen to the wife of a Marine, it can happen to anyone. If this can happen during a scheduled appointment, it can happen to anyone. If the system is allowed to process this kind of cruelty without consequence, it will keep doing it—quietly, efficiently, and without end.

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This is the truth. No embellishment. No speculation. Just another family shredded by a system that punishes compliance and targets the vulnerable. If you believe in journalism that doesn’t flinch, subscribe to Closer to the Edge.