NEED TO KNOW
- Paola Clouatre, the wife of Marine veteran Adrian Clouatre, has been detained by ICE in Louisiana since late May
- The couple shares two young children, Noah and Lyn, who visit their mother hours away at a detention facility in Monroe whenever Adrian can take them
- “I cried the whole way home,” Adrian says of the day Paola was detained at a green card appointment
As the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came into view at his wife Paola’s green card appointment, Adrian Clouatre knew immediately she would be separated from him.
They were waiting in a New Orleans lobby in May after their interviews when a woman from the Department of Homeland Security walked over, introduced herself and escorted them to two agents ready to take Paola, 25, into custody.
“They let me hug and kiss her goodbye, we talked for two minutes and then they took her into the ICE facility,” Adrian, 26, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.
The Marine veteran and restaurant manager did his best to stay calm, knowing that any wrong move was “only going to hurt the situation.”
But inside, he felt a mix of “rage, fear [and] panic.”
“I cried the whole way home,” he says.
Adrian says Paola, with whom he shares two kids, was 14 when she was brought to the United States from Mexico by her mom and granted protection under the asylum system. But the teenage Paola and her mother became estranged according to Paola’s attorney, making it hard for her to track her legal status.
It was only while applying to be a permanent resident — after having already married Adrian in 2024 — that Paola learned she was subject to a deportation order for missing a hearing in 2018 that her mother never told her about, according to her husband.
The couple was honest about it during the green card appointment, but it did not have an impact on what happened next.
DHS officials have defended their decision, saying Paola was in the country illegally.
“An immigration judge issued her a final order of removal on February 12, 2018. President Trump and Secretary Noem are not going to ignore the rule of law,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told PEOPLE in a statement. “On May 27, 2025, she filed an emergency motion to reopen her immigration case. This motion was rejected. She remains in ICE custody.”
“She’s undeserving of this treatment,” Adrian says. “She’s being punished for the sins of her mother.”
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Since May, Paola — who was still breastfeeding their 4-month-old daughter Lyn when she was arrested — has been held at a facility about three hours from her family, who lives in Baton Rouge, La.
“She’s losing time with her babies. I’m losing time with her,” says Adrian.
He takes two young children to visit as often as he can, he says he’s already observing changes in their son Noah, nearly 2.
“He just misses her,” Adrian says, “You can see it, there’s cracks in his personality.”
Adrian, with help from an online fundraiser for his legal bills, is seeking her release as the spouse of a U.S. citizen. “If I don’t stay hopeful,” he says, “what do I have?”
Although the legal process to free her feels daunting, he’s thankful for the work of their attorney.
“There’s a really big net out there that’s grabbing everybody,” their attorney, Carey Holliday says.
“She has no criminal history. Neither does Adrian, and they’re just good people who are in a very unfortunate circumstance,” he says, adding later, “Somebody needs to look at these things and apply a little discretion somewhere up the line.”
As her case continues to unfold, a hearing has been scheduled for the morning of Wednesday, July 23, to determine the next steps regarding Paola’s legal status.
“It’s very clear that my wife is not a threat to society or any American,” Adrian says. “She’s a great person, a great mother.”
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