- Masked ICE agents arrested two spouses after green card interviews in San Diego.
- Families admit visa overstays but say such cases are usually forgiven.
- ICE says anyone out of status can legally be detained, even at USCIS offices.
Two families in San Diego, California, United States (US), have recounted how their lives were upended last week when masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested their spouses during what was supposed to be the final, and often routine, step in the marriage-based green card process.
EKO HOT BLOG reports that the rare enforcement action, carried out at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, has sparked alarm among immigration lawyers who say they have never seen such tactics deployed against visa overstays undergoing legal adjustment.
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The arrests are the latest examples of the effects of the aggressive immigration policy of President Donald Trump’s second term in office. This harsh policy has been denounced as inhumane by critics.
According to The Mirror US, the families said the arrests occurred on Thursday morning just after each couple had finished their interviews — the final stage of a months-long application process that typically leads to permanent residency.
Both spouses who were taken into custody — a German man and a British mother — had no criminal records. Their partners openly acknowledged that they had overstayed their visas but said their lawyers had reassured them that such overstays are usually forgiven for applicants seeking green cards through marriage.
Audrey Hestmark described a jarring scene when three armed and masked ICE agents entered the room moments after her interview concluded.
“Three men with masks and bulletproof vests and guns came in and told us they were going to arrest Tom,” she said, referring to her husband, Tom Bilger, who entered the U.S. on a visa from Germany.
She said the agents refused to identify themselves beyond stating they had a warrant. “I asked for their names. They didn’t give me their full names. They didn’t show me their badge numbers. They didn’t remove their masks. They simply said, ‘We have a warrant for his arrest,’ and they handed me a QR code, and they put my husband in handcuffs. And they took him and said I couldn’t follow,” Hestmark added.
In a separate but strikingly similar case, Stephen Paul said ICE agents detained his wife, Katie, a British national, as she held their six-month-old child.
Paul said the couple had decided to remain in the U.S. to apply for her green card instead of returning to the United Kingdom because her pregnancy was considered high-risk. They believed they were following the law. “We see the ICE agents come around, and they say that they’re arresting Katie,” he recalled. “She was just stunned. She kept asking what was wrong, what did we do? We’d done everything right.”
Immigration lawyers in the region say such arrests began around November 12 and represent a break from long-standing practice. Though visa overstays technically remain violations of immigration law, attorneys say they have historically been treated leniently for marriage-based applicants with clean records, especially when the individuals appear at USCIS offices voluntarily to regularize their status.
ICE, however, defended the arrests in a statement, saying the agency “is committed to enforcing federal immigration laws through targeted operations that prioritize national security, public safety, and border security.” The agency added that “individuals unlawfully present in the United States, including those out of status at federal sites such as USCIS offices, may face arrest, detention, and removal in accordance with U.S. immigration law.”
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For the families of Bilger and Paul, that clarification has offered little comfort. Both say they had entered the process expecting scrutiny, not armed agents. Now, they face an uncertain legal battle and are grappling with the reality that what their lawyers described as routine — overstays forgiven during green card processing — is no longer guaranteed.
Philip Ibitoye is a Special Correspondent with EKO HOT BLOG. Click here to find daily analysis and critical insight on trending issues in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria.
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