Two people say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested their spouses Thursday morning during their green card interviews at San Diego’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office, detailing the incidents they say shocked and stunned them.
One was a German man and the other a woman from the U.K., taken into custody while holding her nearly 6-month-old son.
The couples don’t know each other but said both people arrested came through legal pathways and have no criminal records. They said their spouses did overstay their visas but were advised by their attorneys that it is traditionally forgiven while in the green card process.
These kinds of arrests began Nov. 12, multiple immigration attorneys say, many adding they had never seen anything like this before.
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Both couples said they had just completed their interviews, the final step in the months-long green card process, when ICE agents walked into the room.
“Three men with masks and bulletproof vests and guns came in and told us they were going to arrest Tom,” said Audrey Hestmark. She said her husband Tom Bilger came into the U.S. from Germany on a visa and that they applied for his green card after they got married last year.
“We see the ICE agents come around, and they say that they’re arresting Katie,” said Stephen Paul. He said his wife originally planned to return to the U.K. last fall to wait there for her entry, but they decided to apply for her green card from here in the U.S. when she learned she was pregnant. He said they knew it would be a high-risk pregnancy and wanted to stay in the U.S. for medical care and family support, and that his attorney advised them this was permissible under immigration law because they were married.
When asked about this tactic and several specific arrests earlier in the week, ICE said in a statement that the agency “is committed to enforcing federal immigration laws through targeted operations that prioritize national security, public safety, and border security.”
“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,” ICE’s statement continuing.
When asked again Friday about these latest arrests, ICE sent the same statement.
“I asked for their names. They didn’t give me their full names,” Hestmark recalled of the agents. “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.”
“She was just stunned,” Paul said. “She kept asking what was wrong, what did we do? We’d done everything right.”
“We kept asking them if there was something we could do, if there was any way we could keep her from being separated from the family,” he continued. “We’re just trying to figure out what’s happening, and they’re just telling us, ‘I’m sorry. We’ve tried to not have to do it, but we’ve got direct orders.”
“I had to take my baby, our baby, from his crying mother’s arms,” Paul said.
“We were completely shocked, and I feel like we were tricked,” Hestmark said. “We went through every possible legal and appropriate channel. We followed the advice of our lawyer. We were told that our case was straight forward.”
“He just wanted to be part of this country and for us to start our future together. And he wanted to do it the right way,” she continued through tears. “And we were told we were doing it the right way.”
Both said they went to the federal building a few blocks south but struggled to find any information on their spouses.
“It took almost three hours to get a hold of her because we had to fight just to find out where to go, to ask to see her,” Paul said.
“Tom isn’t in the system. I can’t find him,” Hestmark said. “I can’t call him. I can’t put money into his account. The lawyer doesn’t know how to proceed because he hasn’t been charged with anything.”
Both said their spouses were able to call them Thursday night, and they believed they were still being held in the basement of the federal building as of Friday afternoon.
“She said that she was scared. She was anxious, missed her baby. She just wants to come home,” Paul said. “She said the agents themselves were in the detention down in the basement of the federal building, saying, ‘What are we doing here? These aren’t the sort of people we’re supposed to be arresting.’”
“They hadn’t given him anything to eat or any information,” Hestmark said. “They gave him a mat and a foil blanket to sleep on.”
As she was detailing his arrest Friday afternoon, Bilger called Hestmark again from detention. She said he told her they had moved him to the Otay Mesa Detention Center and back but he hadn’t slept and still hadn’t been processed.
“My wife’s alone and terrified,” Paul said. “My baby doesn’t have his mom to hold him. I can’t work right now because I need to take care of him. I can’t ask family to take care of him because I’m afraid if I don’t have him to take care of, I’m going to just fall apart worrying about Katie.”
“Nobody wants this. Nobody wants to see families ripped apart,” he said. Pointing to his nearly 6-month-old son Alan, he added, “You can’t look at him and think its OK to take him from his mom.”
“It’s not something I ever thought would happen but I feel responsible to ring the alarm and tell people what’s happening,” Hestmark said. “I want to give Tom a voice.”
“We were told that it would only be happening to criminals,” she continued. “We’re just normal people, and it’s happening to us.”
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