General Discussion

The claim that 6,600 US veteran wives were arrested by ICE is false.

This number stems from a misunderstanding of statistics mentioned in a news report about the detention of a veteran's wife. One.

The figure 6,600 actually refers to the number of non-citizen parents of U.S. citizen children who were detained by ICE over a nine-month period, NOT specifically the wives of U.S. veterans.

This figure originated from a CBS News report in June 2025, which mentioned that the wife of a Marine veteran was one of more than 6,600 non-citizen parents of U.S. citizen children detained in the last nine months.
While the specific figure of 6,600 veteran wives is inaccurate, there have been multiple confirmed, individual cases in 2025 where the spouses of U.S. military members and veterans were detained by immigration authorities, often during routine check-ins or green card appointments.
These cases have sparked outrage from the public and lawmakers, particularly due to a 2025 policy change that ended a previous practice of granting deference to military families in immigration enforcement decisions.

Notable cases include:
-- Paola Clouatre, the wife of Marine veteran Adrian Clouatre, who was detained in May 2025 during a green card interview in New Orleans. She was later released after two months in custody.
-- The wife of an active-duty Coast Guardsman, who was arrested over an expired visa while the couple was moving into military housing.
-- Juana McIntosh, the wife of a deployed U.S. military worker, who was detained in Atlanta.

These cases are individual incidents and do not support the claim of 6,600 arrests of veteran wives.