标签： North America

A retired U.S. Army veteran is fighting to keep his family together after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained his Honduran-born wife during a routine scheduled immigration appointment in Dallas, Texas this week, marking at least the third high-profile detention of a U.S. military service member’s noncitizen spouse in recent months.

Retired Staff Sergeant Wilmer Trujillo, 45, who served nearly 20 years in the U.S. Army and Texas National Guard including two combat tours in Iraq before retiring in 2021, accompanied his wife Arelys Barahona Martinez, 40, to the required check-in earlier this week. The couple, who married in 2020 after meeting at a local Texas nightclub in 2019, believed they were following all official protocols, having complied with every requirement of the immigration process since Barahona Martinez re-entered the U.S. in 2018.

“To us, it was a regular check-up day, we were always doing everything by the book,” Trujillo told the BBC in an interview from the agency’s parking lot, where he waited for hours after being barred from seeing his wife following her detainment. “I told her to do everything by the book. I’m by-the-book, I’ve been brought up military. We thought everything was fine, until an officer came out and said, ‘Your wife is not leaving today.’”

Following her arrest, ICE transferred Barahona Martinez to a detention facility in Oklahoma to await deportation, according to agency records. Barahona Martinez first crossed the U.S. southern border in 2005, after which an immigration judge issued a final order of removal. She left the country voluntarily later that year, but re-entered illegally in 2018, after which immigration authorities granted her supervised release. She has no criminal record in the U.S., public records and Trujillo confirm.

After their 2020 marriage, the couple applied for the parole in place program, a federal initiative that allows undocumented spouses of U.S. service members to stay in the country and pursue permanent legal residency. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rejected the application in November 2024 during the Biden administration, on the grounds that the active 2005 removal order meant the request had to be processed through ICE rather than USCIS. Trujillo’s legal team has been working to rescind the 2005 order, which Barahona Martinez was unaware of when she re-entered the U.S. in 2018, to clear a path for her to stay.

Attorney Mark Shmueli, who represents Trujillo and Barahona Martinez, confirmed this week he has filed an emergency motion in a Texas state court to halt Barahona Martinez’s deportation until a judge can hear the case. ICE confirmed receipt of the motion Friday and indicated the case could be eligible for a temporary stay of removal. Shmueli said the unanticipated detainment flies in the face of past precedent for military family immigration cases. “I didn’t expect this to happen to her yesterday,” Shmueli said. “I don’t understand why after all this time, why they detained her. Because I’ve seen the opposite with military folks.”

For Trujillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Colombia who calls himself a proud American and Texan, the separation has been devastating. “I just don’t understand, we have a family here, and they’re breaking us up,” he said. “They’re breaking my family up. She’s my backbone.” The couple shares a blended family: Barahona Martinez has a 20-year-old son, and Trujillo has two adult daughters from a previous marriage.

Barahona Martinez’s detainment is part of a growing pattern of immigration enforcement actions against military family members under the second Trump administration, immigration advocates and official records confirm. She is at least the third military spouse detained by ICE during a scheduled official appointment in recent months.

In April, ICE detained Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of an active-duty U.S. Army soldier in El Paso, Texas, when the couple attended an interview for the parole in place program. Ortega was released shortly after the detainment sparked public outcry. Also in April, ICE detained Annie Ramos, the newlywed undocumented wife of an active-duty soldier, when the couple visited a federal facility to pick up her military dependent ID. Ramos, who came to the U.S. as a toddler, was held for five days before being released.

The shift in enforcement follows a change to ICE policy rolled out in April 2025, after Trump took office for his second term. During the Biden administration, ICE issued a formal directive that classified immediate family members of active-duty and retired service members as a “significant mitigating factor” that should generally exempt them from arrest and enforcement actions except in extraordinary circumstances. The 2025 Trump-era memorandum replaced that policy, retaining protections for service members themselves but making no mention of their noncitizen immediate family members.

In a statement to the BBC, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson defended the agency’s actions, confirming Barahona Martinez had been granted full due process and that the agency was adhering to the rule of law. “The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal from the US,” the spokesperson said. In a separate response to Senator Elizabeth Warren, DHS confirmed that between January 2025 and January 2026, USCIS issued 113 notices to initiate removal proceedings against immediate relatives of retired and active-duty U.S. service members whose parole in place applications had been denied. In total, 282 noncitizens including both former service members and their immediate family members have been placed in removal proceedings over that 12-month period, the agency confirmed.

“US military service alone does not automatically grant lawful immigration status, or exempt aliens from the consequences of violating immigration laws,” the spokesperson added. The DHS spokesperson noted that USCIS does maintain provisions to expedite naturalization for military family members who qualify.

Immigration attorneys say the policy change has left hundreds of military families in limbo, separating service members and veterans from their spouses and loved ones despite their service to the country. “Basically: You better have a good reason for arresting the spouse of a military member if you do,” said Rachel Girod, an immigration attorney, describing the Biden-era policy. That protection is now gone for military families.

Trujillo says he knows he is not alone in this fight, and the uncertainty over his wife’s future has left him shocked. “It boggles me that they’re not giving us that chance,” he said. “She’s trying to be an example to all other immigrants that want a better life here.”

A federal judge in the United States has upheld a block on the $1.8 billion (approximately £1.3 billion) “anti-weaponisation” fund put forward by former President Donald Trump, rejecting verbal assurances from the administration that the plan has been scrapped and demanding formal sworn confirmation within seven days that the initiative will not move forward.

The controversial proposal first emerged as part of a planned settlement in Trump’s personal lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, filed over the unauthorized leak of his confidential tax returns. Under the plan, the $1.776 billion fund would be overseen by a five-person independent commission tasked with reviewing and compensating claims from individuals who identified as victims of so-called “lawfare” and the “weaponisation” of the U.S. justice system.

Almost immediately after the fund was announced, it sparked fierce bipartisan backlash in Congress, as lawmakers raised urgent alarms that the fund could be used to issue payouts to people charged or convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot — including those found guilty of assaulting law enforcement officers during the insurrection. In response to the widespread public and congressional outrage, Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Capitol Hill earlier this month that the Trump administration would abandon the plan entirely, stating clearly “We’re not moving forward with the fund, period.”

Last week, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema issued a temporary restraining order pausing the implementation of the fund, which was set to expire at the end of Friday. During a Friday court hearing, Brinkema pushed back against arguments that Blanche’s congressional testimony constituted sufficient assurance that the fund was dead. According to MS NOW, the judge repeatedly emphasized that verbal testimony was not enough to lock in the cancellation, and ordered that formal sworn confirmation of the fund’s termination be submitted by both Attorney General Blanche and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent within one week.

The legal challenge to block the fund was brought by a coalition of plaintiffs, led by Andrew Floyd, a former federal prosecutor who has claimed he was wrongfully fired from his position after leading prosecutions of January 6 Capitol rioters. Following the judge’s ruling, Floyd released a statement reaffirming his commitment to the lawsuit. “I will continue this litigation to ensure that this unconstitutional fund does not erase the accountability imposed by judges and impartial jurors — and the hard-earned work of the victims, witnesses, law enforcement officers, and prosecutors who delivered it,” Floyd said.

The ongoing legal battle over the fund highlights deep partisan and institutional tensions over the Trump administration’s approach to the justice system, and the widespread concern over potential attempts to pardon or compensate individuals convicted of crimes related to the 2021 Capitol insurrection.

A sharp public rift has erupted over the contours of a potential Iran peace deal after leaked supposed terms circulated by Iranian media drew a blistering rejection from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared that good-faith negotiation with Tehran is impossible.
The breakdown in public messaging comes weeks after a broad wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets that launched the latest open conflict in February. Iran retaliated with attacks on Israeli positions and Gulf states aligned with Washington, and effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz — the global economy’s critical chokepoint for oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. An April ceasefire paused large-scale hostilities, but intermittent tit-for-tat strikes have continued, including two back-to-back exchanges just this week.
The chaos erupted just 24 hours after Trump’s own volatile shift in messaging: on Thursday, he first threatened new military strikes on Iran, then hours later announced he had called off the attacks because negotiators had reached a “great settlement” that would be signed imminently. Iranian officials quickly pushed back, calling any claims of a finished agreement pure speculation.
On Friday, Iranian state media outlets published what they claimed were the finalized terms of the emerging agreement, laying out terms that aligned with longstanding public demands from Tehran. The leaked details included an immediate end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iran, the release of at least $300 billion in frozen Iranian assets to cover damage from the recent U.S. and Israeli strikes, and preconditions for full negotiations: half of all frozen assets must be unblocked, oil sanctions suspended, and the blockade lifted before formal talks on core issues begin. The leaked draft also calls for a final deal to be ratified by a United Nations Security Council resolution, with talks limited to enrichment activity, sanctions relief, and Iranian economic reconstruction. It also includes Tehran’s longstanding demand for an end to Israeli hostilities with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Iran’s top diplomat Seyed Abbas Araghchi walked back the leak, however, acknowledging that a deal has never been closer but urging media to avoid unconfirmed speculation about the content of ongoing talks.
U.S. officials quickly pushed back against every core element of the Iranian leak. A senior Trump administration official told the BBC that the U.S. vision for any agreement requires the full destruction and removal of Iranian nuclear material and the permanent dismantling of Iran’s enrichment program. No Iranian assets will be released, the official said, until Tehran meets all U.S. demands, reopens the Strait of Hormuz permanently, and commits to cutting off funding for proxy groups including Hezbollah across the Middle East. The nuclear dispute has spanned decades: Western nations have long accused Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran consistently denies, saying its program is exclusively for peaceful energy and scientific research.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance also issued a public correction Friday, noting “a couple of bizarre things” in the leaked reporting. “Iranians are not receiving any cash, and no funds are being released for simply signing a deal or attending a meeting,” Vance wrote in a post on X. He emphasized that the potential agreement is structured to prioritize U.S. and allied security concerns, with economic benefits only unlocked after Iran verifiably meets all its obligations.
In his most blunt comments Friday, Trump rejected the leaked terms out of hand, saying the published details “bears no relation to the truth” and have “nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to” in private talks. “They were very dishonorable people to deal with,” Trump wrote of Iranian negotiators, urging Tehran to “get your act together, and FAST!” He added that there is “no such thing as dealing in good faith” when negotiating with the Islamic Republic.
The indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran, which do not include Israeli negotiators, have been mediated primarily by Pakistan. The goal of the current discussions is to extend the fragile April ceasefire and set a framework for future negotiations on core contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program.

In a fresh step toward greater transparency around unexplained aerial phenomena, the U.S. government has officially declassified and released four previously undisclosed UFO videos captured by eyewitnesses. The newly released footage, which has begun circulating publicly, documents a series of bright, circular glowing orbs moving across the sky above an undisclosed location in the northeastern region of the United States.

This declassification follows a series of previous releases of unidentified aerial phenomenon (UAP) records by the U.S. government over recent years, as federal agencies have increasingly prioritized formal documentation and public disclosure of encounters that cannot be immediately explained by conventional aircraft, weather phenomena, or known man-made objects. The move comes amid ongoing work by congressional committees and Pentagon-led task forces mandated to investigate UAP sightings reported by military personnel and civilian observers across the country.

While the origins of the glowing orbs captured in the footage remain unconfirmed, the release of these videos marks another data point for researchers and officials working to categorize and understand unexplained aerial encounters. Officials have not yet issued additional commentary on whether the objects observed in the new videos have been linked to any known natural or human activity, leaving open ongoing analysis of the sighting.