BATON ROUGE - A young Baton Rouge family is anxiously waiting for what's next after ICE agents arrested a mother of two in New Orleans last month.

Paola Clouatre had an appointment on May 27 at New Orleans USCIS for an interview pertaining to her permanent residence status. The 25-year-old entered the U.S. from Mexico and was legally processed with her family about a decade ago. Following the interview, Paola and her husband were told to wait for additional paperwork but instead were greeted by three ICE agents. She's now being held at Richwood Correctional Facility in Monroe. 

Ever since, her husband Adrian Clouatre has been living a nightmare not knowing what could happen next. 

"She had an ICE agent tell her on Friday that she was going to be deported this past weekend," said Adrian Clouatre. 

The Clouatres met in Palm Springs, where Adrian was serving in the Marine Corps. He served five years there before moving back home to Louisiana.

The Clouatres have two children, a 19-month-old boy and a nine-week-old girl who is still nursing. Adrian Clouatre has been driving the children to see their mom, which is three and a half hours each way, so they can visit and the baby can nurse. 

He says his wife is being treated like a prisoner. About 100 detainees stay in an open cafeteria-like setting with cots. The lights turn off at one a.m. and turn on at four a.m. when breakfast is served. Lunch is served at 10 a.m. followed by dinner at four p.m.

"There's no discretion used in this process, it's like a vacuum sucking people up," he said.

Days before her interview in New Orleans, the Clouatres learned that Paola had a final order of removal issued by a judge in California in 2018. Unbeknownst to her, Paola's mother missed an immigration hearing and a removal order was issued for the entire family.

"We didn't know anything about this until a week before her interview," said Adrian Clouatre. 

They were upfront with the information at their interview, hoping to have more time to get her paperwork in order. 

"But they just took her," said Adrian Clouatre.

While living in California, the Clouatres hired a paralegal to help start the process to get Paola's Green Card. The final order of removal was missed during the process.

Former immigration judge Carey Holliday is working to get Paola back to Baton Rouge.

"They were victimized by bad legal advice," said Holliday.

Now, the Clouatres are waiting on a pending motion to reopen an emergency stay of removal to the Department of Homeland Security in Los Angeles. That would essentially erase the final order of removal and Paola can adjust, working to secure a Green Card and eventually U.S. citizenship. 

Holliday, who issued hundreds of final orders of removal during his time on the bench, says this situation is unfortunate.

"It's terrible they don't make exceptions for this, this young man served his country honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps and now they've taken his wife and now he's left as a single parent for his two children and there's no reason for it other than this is what we do; it's bureaucracy at work," said Holliday.

Adrian Clouatre says agents are grasping for low-hanging fruit instead of detaining those who threaten the safety and security of Americans.

He's waiting for more information hoping to bring her home to her family in Baton Rouge.