Marine Veteran Feels 'Betrayed' as ICE Detains ...

By Andrew Stanton

Weekend Staff Writer

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A Marine veteran said he felt “betrayed” after U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained his wife, Chanidaphon Sopimpa of Thailand, during a green card meeting last month.

Sopimpa’s attorney Derek Poulsen told Newsweek that she overstayed her visa but had no other criminal record. Her arrest comes as a growing number of immigrants have been detained during green card meetings in San Diego over the past month.

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin told Newsweek that applying for a green card “does not confer legal status.”

Why It Matters

President Donald Trump campaigned on carrying out the largest deportation operations in U.S. history, and his administration quickly moved to heighten enforcement upon his return to the White House in January.

DHS said in September that more than two million undocumented immigrants had been deported since his inauguration, but many reports have found that individuals with misdemeanors, decades-old infractions or in some cases no criminal records at all have been swept up in his enforcement. Polls have found that many Americans have soured on Trump’s immigration policy.

What To Know

Sopimpa met Samuel Shasteen, a Marine veteran, in 2022, months after Shasteen lost his wife to cancer, reported San Diego-based news station KNSD. The couple has since got married and began Sopimpa’s green card process.

She was detained last month while attending a green card interview with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Poulsen told Newsweek. While she did enter on a visitor visa and overstay, it is rare for the spouses of American citizens to be detained by ICE agents, he said. She had no further criminal record, he said.

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She has been held in Otay Mesa Detention Center ever since, the attorney said.

“You’ve got a guy, you know, a veteran that married his wife, who—she was in the United States without status. But she had entered the United States legally. So, because he's a U.S. citizen, and because they were married and becausethey were in a good faith, bona fide marriage, historically—and we’ve done these for years—we don’t run into any issues,” Poulsen added.

Poulsen said these sorts of arrests began over the past two-and-a-half weeks in San Diego. There have been other reports of individuals being arrested during green card interviews, such as Hanne Daguman, who was born in Norway but attended school in California. Her husband also told Newsweek she had no criminal record beyond overstaying her visa.

Shasteen told KNSD he feels “betrayed” by his wife’s detainment, adding: “We do everything that we can to protect and serve our country. And then they betray us by treating us like we've never done anything."

McLaughlin confirmed her detainment in a statement to Newsweek.

“On November 18,2025, ICE officers arrested Chanidaphon Shashteen, an illegal alien from Thailand who entered the U.S. in 2022 on B-2 tourist visa and illegally overstayed the terms of that visa. Applying for a green card does not confer legal status,” she said.

What People Are Saying

Attorney Derek Poulsen told Newsweek: “What is the most surprising is these individuals that are being detained at their interviews, they qualify, right? I would I would say probably 99 percent of them are going to qualify for a green card. Instead of just letting them complete that process with USCIS, now they're detaining them, and making them go through the same process but now they just have to do it in immigration court, which doesn’t make sense, at least from my viewpoint.”

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin also told Newsweek: “Illegal aliens can take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”

What Happens Next

Poulsen said he was working to get Sopimpa released on bond. Sopimpa and her husband will have to restart the green card process “almost from scratch” because of her detainment, the attorney added.

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