An AP investigation published in 2025 identified more than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops detained under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
The Pentagon's Parole in Place policy, formalized in 2013, has allowed undocumented immediate family members of U.S. service members to remain in the country legally on a case-by-case basis.
There are roughly 1.3 million active-duty U.S. troops, and an estimated 40,000 of them are themselves immigrants, according to the Department of Defense.
ICE arrests surged in 2025, with the agency reporting more than 100,000 immigration arrests in the first months of Trump's second term.
In one AP-documented case, the wife of an active-duty Marine was detained during a green card interview in New Orleans in April 2025.