Army wife pulled from Brazil deportation flight, released from ICE custody
A US soldier's wife detained for over a month was removed from a deportation flight to Brazil and released, though her family remains anxious about her immigration case.
Maisa Lopes Eliaser, the wife of a U.S. Army staff sergeant, is back home in Louisiana after being removed from a deportation flight to Brazil and released from federal immigration custody. Eliaser had spent more than a month in detention before officers intervened mid-flight on Wednesday.
Eliaser told the Varta Wire that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on the plane received a phone call about her case while airborne. An officer then asked whether she wished to continue to Brazil or return to the United States. She chose to return, and while other detainees disembarked in Brazil, she remained on board and flew back to Louisiana.
Her husband, Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, said he does not know who made the call that changed her fate. "Someone made the phone call, and then she came back," he said. Eliaser said ICE officers told her she was "famous" because videos about her case had circulated online.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, did not respond to a request for comment. DHS previously said Eliaser, 32, had received a final removal order on April 15 after overstaying the tourist visa she entered on in 2019.
Eliaser was detained on July 8 during an immigration appointment. Jaramillo, a 43-year-old aviation operations specialist with over a decade of Army service, took leave from training duties at Fort Polk to care for Eliaser's 5-year-old son. The couple married in 2024; Jaramillo is a U.S. citizen.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona also looked into the case, according to Jaramillo. Kelly's office did not respond to a request for comment. Danitza James, president of Repatriate Our Patriots, which assisted the family, called the reunion "proof of what's possible when people set politics aside and do right by those who serve."
Eliaser has another immigration appointment scheduled for Monday to seek reopening of her case and advance her green card application. Jaramillo said officials have assured him there will be no further issues, but the couple remains fearful. "We are really, really, really scared about it," he said.
Eliaser said she is struggling to sleep and fears being sent back to the detention facility, where she said she was treated like "an animal." "It felt like I was in a nightmare," she said. "Day by day, I'm trying to recover from this trauma."