When Paola Clouatre arrived home, her young son Noah glanced at her sideways. He covered his face, turned around, looked back again. “It was as if he couldn’t believe that the person there was me, his mom,” Clouatre says, as she recalls the moment she was reunited with her family, two months after being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while breastfeeding her three-month-old baby.
The first thing she did when Noah recognized her was hug him. “I said to him: ‘It’s Mom. Mom is home again with you.’” The second thing she did was breastfeed her baby, Lyn.
“I couldn’t believe I was home again, it was like a shock,” Clouatre tells CNN from her home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as she cradles Lyn, and Noah runs around the room scribbling on a piece of paper. Next to her is her husband Adrián, a Marine Corps veteran who fought tirelessly for her release.
Clouatre, born in Mexico, had come to the United States in 2014 with her mother. She was 14 years old. She soon lost contact with her and spent her teenage years in homeless shelters. In 2022 she met Adrian. Shortly after, they had Noah. In February 2024, they got married and later, little Lyn was born.
On May 27, the couple went to an adjustment of status interview, hoping to advance the process for Clouatre to obtain her permanent residence or green card. Just a week before, they had learned that there was a deportation order against her, because she had not attended a hearing whose notice had been sent to her mother, and the young woman never found out.
Clouatre was detained on the spot and transferred to ICE’s rural detention center in Monroe, four hours from her home.
‘Farewells were the most painful moments’
Clouatre says she never imagined she would end up detained. She spent several days in shock, trying to process what was happening. She didn’t even have time to say goodbye to her children.
“It was very hard. I missed my family, my children, my husband. I had a lot of anxiety, depression,” she recalls. “Sometimes I didn’t eat, other times I ate too much out of anxiety. I cried a lot.”
But for her, most painful were the visits from her children. Her husband made the long trip to the detention center as often as possible so Clouatre could see the kids and continue breastfeeding the baby. He also managed to get her a breast pump to prevent her milk supply from drying up.
“When he brought me the children, I would hug my little girl, breastfeed her, but it was only for a while. When the visit ended, I had to say goodbye. My son would grab my hand, walk with me, he didn’t want to let go. He cried when they took him away. Goodbyes were the most painful,” Clouatre recalls.
Several times, she says, she was told they told her she could be put on a plane and deported at any moment.
Paola Clouatre is reunited with her husband and children after months in ICE detention. Portions of this image were obscured by CNN to protect the identity of minors. – Courtesy Paola Clouatre
“I thought: ‘And if I go to Mexico? Where will I go? With whom? I don’t talk with my family. I didn’t know how I would survive. I worried a lot. My husband and I talked about it all the time, about what would happen to me, how I would communicate, how I would move forward,” she says.
Her husband had told CNN in a previous interview, while she was still detained, that deportation was an unthinkable scenario for them, since his wife no longer had any ties in Mexico.
“They mixed us all together: people with no criminal record with people who did have criminal records,” she says. “There were about 105 women in my dormitory.” The routine was strict and the tension constant, she recalls.
CNN asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the detention conditions mentioned by Clouatre, but did not receive a response on this specific point.
But when posed with other questions from migrants and human rights organizations about ICE detention centers, DHS responded that “all detainees receive adequate food, medical treatment, and have the opportunity to communicate with their families and lawyers” and that “ensuring the safety and well-being of people in our custody is an absolute priority at ICE.”
Freedom and hope for the future
A week ago, after her husband and his lawyer Carey Holliday tried by every possible means to secure Clouatre’s release, she was finally able to leave the detention center and reunite with her family.
Her husband told CNN that a judge suspended the deportation order. Then, Senator John Kennedy’s office submitted a request to DHS for the woman to be released, the AP reported.
Asked by CNN, DHS said that “Members of Congress have no influence over whom ICE arrests, detains, or subjects to immigration procedures … DHS enforces the law. Period,” they responded by email, in a statement attributed to Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
“Lisette Paola Rosas-Campos (Clouatre) filed a motion to reopen her immigration case on May 27, 2025, and requested an emergency stay of deportation from an immigration judge. The immigration judge granted the motion and she was released from ICE custody while her immigration process continues,” the DHS statement says.
Clouatre must now wear an electronic ankle monitor and report to an official every two weeks as one of the conditions for her release.
What’s next? “We’re trying to get our lives back. Looking for an apartment in Louisiana. We want to establish a normal life,” says her husband.
“I understand the law has to be enforced, but there must also be humanity. There are people waiting for their residency. They are not criminals. They have children. They shouldn’t be treated like criminals,” says the Marine veteran.
Clouatre’s legal process could last several years before it is formally closed, but she could eventually obtain her green card, said Holliday, the couple’s lawyer, as quoted by AP.
Clouatre says she does not consider her detention to be fair. “I felt bad. As if I had done something wrong. I felt guilty, even though I hadn’t done anything wrong,” she explains.
But now, speaking with CNN, she says she is happy to be back with her loved ones. And the children seem just as happy. Noah stops running and sits on his mother. He looks up, turns his face to the screen and says, “Mama.”
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