A retired U.S. Marine veteran, Adrian Clouatre, is appealing to the courts and President Donald Trump for help after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested his Mexico-born wife, Paola Clouatre, during a routine immigration check-in.
Paola, 26, was detained while trying to resolve her immigration status after a deportation order was triggered due to her mother’s failure to appear for a 2018 interview. The arrest occurred during her green card appointment, leaving Adrian to juggle work and caring for their two young children with help from his parents.
Adrian, who manages a restaurant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, expressed deep frustration over the situation. “They straight up lied to me,” he told the Daily Mail, describing how ICE agents handcuffed his wife after telling them they had passed the interview and to wait for further paperwork. “They let me give her a hug and a kiss goodbye.”
The couple’s youngest child, just 10 weeks old, is unable to breastfeed, forcing Adrian to rely on infant formula while Paola remains in a detention center nearly four hours away. He regularly visits her at the Monroe, Louisiana facility, which is known to detain immigrants from across the country.
Adrian has appealed to a California judge to overturn the deportation order and has not ruled out seeking a pardon from President Trump. “If the president saw it and pardoned it, that would be ideal,” he said. “He has the power to pardon immigrants… I may reach out to him.”
Their lawyer, Carey Holliday, condemned the arrest: “It’s just not the way to treat a vet, with an honorable discharge and two small children. It’s not fair to the family.”
The case has attracted attention locally and nationally amid ongoing controversy over ICE’s aggressive enforcement actions, especially targeting individuals at courthouses and workplaces under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign.
A Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Paola is in the country illegally and emphasized the administration’s commitment to enforcing immigration laws. Meanwhile, Adrian and his legal team continue fighting to reunite their family and resolve the administrative delays keeping his wife detained.
