Marine veteran says wife's ICE detention is 'confusing' and 'devastating'
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2026
⏱️ 6 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | In the past few weeks, the Department of Homeland Security has posted regular lists of criminals |
| 0:05.6 | its deporting as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration. |
| 0:09.5 | A website now allows the public to view arrests. |
| 0:12.6 | Despite the Trump administration's claim, it's focused on the worst of the worst, data |
| 0:17.0 | from the nonpartisan track clearinghouse shows nearly 75% of ICE detainees have no criminal |
| 0:23.4 | conviction. Our Lisa Desjardin is back now with a look at one example, the wife of a Marine |
| 0:29.1 | veteran. Lisa spoke with the husband yesterday. Diana Butnarchuk entered the U.S. in 2008 on a |
| 0:36.3 | tourist visa and soon asked for asylum from her native |
| 0:39.2 | country of Moldova. That asylum claim was in the courts for years until it was finally denied |
| 0:45.3 | in 2020. But in the meantime, she worked legally, paid taxes, and married a Marine veteran. |
| 0:51.7 | In 2020, they applied for her to get a status as his spouse. |
| 0:55.5 | They waited six years for her official interview for that. But when they went to that |
| 1:00.1 | appointment earlier this month, Diana was instead detained and told she would be deported. |
| 1:05.9 | That would block her from return for at least 10 years. Her husband, Marine veteran Patrick Baja, joins me now. |
| 1:13.6 | Patrick, tell us what happened when you went to that appointment at Citizenship and Immigration |
| 1:18.6 | Services. Yeah, well, we went to the appointment thinking this is our shot. Finally, we are getting |
| 1:26.3 | the interview that we waited six years for. |
| 1:29.6 | And we planned on the interview just as expected. |
| 1:35.5 | Once we got into the interview, it was about five minutes. |
| 1:39.8 | And we were interrupted by the ICE agents. |
| 1:43.5 | The ICE agents entered and they detained my wife. |
| 1:50.0 | Had you thought something like that could happen? |
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