Article By Newser Editors
Trump administration looks to deport Luis Manuel Aviles, who’s been in US for 19 years
When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy—a vessel that set a US military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers. Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, his wife, Argelia Aviles, tells the AP. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the US for 19 years.
Aviles’ arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty US troops. At least six family members have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. One spouse, the wife of a US soldier who spent more than a month in federal immigration detention, was removed from a deportation flight to Brazil after the AP’s reporting.
One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Aviles on Saturday in Key West and that he will remain in ICE custody while the government seeks to deport him. “Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the department said Sunday. Meanwhile, Joshua Aviles said in a Facebook post that he has been working 12-hour work shifts for more than 250 days without a break on the USS Lincoln, which has been deployed in the Middle East. “I don’t know how I can mentally continue,” he wrote.
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