MAGA Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who has been a fervent supporter of Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts to deport undocumented migrants, reversed course when it came to one of his constituents, according to The New York Times.
Kennedy told Fox News on July 17, “If you’re in our country illegally, you’re a criminal. Illegal immigration is illegal, duh.”
And yet, the senator's office recently asked the Department of Homeland Security to release 25-year-old Paola Clouatre after two months in a Louisiana detention center, the report said.
Clouatre is a Mexican citizen and mother of two young children who is married to a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
"In an email on Tuesday morning, Christy Tate, the constituent services representative in Mr. Kennedy’s office, wrote to Mr. Clouatre to confirm that his wife had been released from ICE custody after her office had made a formal request to the federal agency," the report said.
The email read in part, “I am so happy for you and your family. We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers.”
Reporter Pooja Salhotra wrote that Clouatre came to the United States as a teenager "to seek asylum with her mother and brother." After her mother failed to show up for a court hearing in California in 2018, a judge issued a deportation order against the teen.
Now estranged from her mother, Clouatre said she didn't learn of the deportation order until earlier this year "when she was already in the process of applying for a green card," the report said.
She was detained by ICE agents on May 27 shortly after giving birth, and while attending a "routine appointment in New Orleans related to her application for a green card and permanent resident status," according to the report.
During her incarceration, Clouatre's husband brought the couple's 9-week-old baby to the jail so she could breastfeed. She is currently wearing an ankle monitor and awaiting a court date for her immigration proceedings.