Bradley Bartell and Camila Muñoz had a familiar small-town love story, before they collided with immigration politics.
They met through mutual friends, had a first date at the local steakhouse, married after two years and were saving to buy a house and have kids. Muñoz was already caring for Bartell’s now 12-year-old son as her own.
But last month, on their way home to Wisconsin after honeymooning in Puerto Rico, an immigration agent pulled Muñoz aside in the airport.
“Are you an American citizen?” asked the agent. She answered no, she wasn’t. She’s from Peru. But she and her husband had taken the legal steps so that one day she might get U.S. citizenship.
Millions of Americans, including Bartell, had voted for President Donald Trump’s promise to crack down on “criminal illegal immigrants.” But eight weeks in, the mass deportation effort has rapidly expanded to include immigrants whose application for legal status in the country is under review.
Even those married or engaged to U.S. citizens are being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USA TODAY has learned.
In addition to Muñoz, USA TODAY has confirmed through attorneys, family members and documents that ICE has detained for weeks:
- A woman in her 50s who has lived in the country more than 30 years and is married to a U.S. citizen.
- A woman in her 30s with proof of valid permanent legal residency, whose father and siblings are U.S. citizens, and who first came to the U.S. as a teen.
- A European woman in her 30s engaged to a U.S. citizen who overstayed her visa when she was 21.
- A woman engaged to a U.S. legal permanent resident, with whom she has lived for nine years.
None of the women has a criminal record, according to a USA TODAY review of national law enforcement records. All were in an ongoing legal immigration process and felt comfortable enough boarding a domestic flight. Immigration agents swept each of them up at airport checkpoints in mid-February, in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Neither ICE nor its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, responded to multiple requests for comment.
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