A woman says her family’s fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings – even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for.

…The woman who actually lives in the house had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier.

The woman, who News 4 will refer to as “Marisa”, and her three daughters came to Oklahoma looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life.

… But any comfort they had disappeared Thursday morning when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door.

pdq wrote:
You know, wingnuts used to whine all the time about “jackbooted thugs” from the government.

When Rosmery Alvarado, 42, arrived in Kansas City on Wednesday with her husband and daughter to attend a spousal interview for her green card application, everyone had a bad feeling. Alvarado’s husband, Nixon Moran, 44, who was born in El Salvador, had been naturalized on March 19 after more than a decade of driving back and forth to long citizenship interviews. When Alvarado, who was born in Guatemala, applied for a green card as his spouse, she expected a similar wait but a familiar process.

… Alvarado’s lawyer notified her family Wednesday night that he had been told her petition for a green card had been approved. However, according to King Law Group, formal approval can only be granted through a physical notice mailed to the petitioner’s address.

… As instructed, Alvarado came to her hearing with a completed I-130 form, Moran said, along with a birth certificate, family photos, testimonials from community members and other documents confirming a timeline of her relationships in the United States.

…when Alvarado arrived at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office in Kansas City, officers refused to confirm the purpose of her visit before she stepped inside, Alvarado’s daughter Carina Moran said. Forty minutes later, Nixon Moran was walking out to meet Carina Moran alone, and Alvarado was on her way to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

“My father was then approached by an ICE officer, and he was told, ‘We arrested your wife and she’s going to be deported,’” Carina Moran, 20, told The Star on Thursday.

The couple ordered to be released from custody Friday, Cesar and Norelia, fled Venezuela in 2022 and were paroled in the U.S. after crossing the border illegally. (The Washington Post is identifying the couple by their middle names because they have applied for U.S. asylum and have said they fear for their safety if deported to Venezuela.)

… On April 1, the couple received notices terminating their TPS designation because of their alleged “association with a Foreign Terrorist Organization” — namely, the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua. On April 16, the couple were taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in El Paso days after they traveled there for a pretrial proceeding over a misdemeanor charge for unauthorized entry into the U.S. in 2022.

After being detained at the airport, the couple were “repeatedly interrogated, pressured to sign documents and make admissions regarding issues that intertwined with both their criminal and immigration cases, but without counsel present,” according to Friday’s order. The notices designating them as “alien enemies” were provided in English, a language neither of them speaks.

…in the strongly worded order that representatives for the federal government failed to provide the court with the evidence required to substantiate the claim that the couple “are members of Tren de Aragua” and criticized their “shoddy affidavits and contradictory testimony.”

Federal representatives, Briones said, “have been unable to convince the court by even a preponderance of evidence required, let alone clear, unequivocal, and convincing evidence required,” that the two were members of the gang.