A Marine veteran says he feels “betrayed” after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained his wife, Chanidaphon Sopimpa of Thailand, during what they thought would be a routine green card appointment last month.
Sopimpa’s attorney, Derek Poulsen, told Newsweek that she overstayed her visa but has no other criminal record. Her detention comes amid a recent spike in arrests of immigrants attending 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 returned to office promising the largest deportation operation in U.S. history, and his administration quickly ramped up enforcement after he was sworn in again in January.
In September, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said more than two million undocumented immigrants had been deported since his inauguration. However, numerous reports indicate that the crackdown has also swept up people with minor offenses, old infractions, or — in some cases — no criminal record beyond immigration violations. Polls suggest many Americans have grown increasingly skeptical of Trump’s immigration approach.
What To Know
Sopimpa met Samuel Shasteen, a Marine veteran, in 2022, months after Shasteen lost his first wife to cancer, according to San Diego station KNSD. They later married and began the process of obtaining a green card for Sopimpa.
Poulsen told Newsweek that she was detained last month while attending a green card interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). He acknowledged that she entered the United States on a visitor visa and overstayed, but said it has historically been rare for the spouses of U.S. citizens to be taken into ICE custody in similar situations, especially when there is no additional criminal history.
Sopimpa has been held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center since her arrest, Poulsen 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 because they were in a good faith, bona fide marriage, historically—and we’ve done these for years—we don’t run into any issues,” Poulsen said.
According to him, arrests like this began appearing in San Diego over roughly the past two and a half weeks. There have been other cases of people being detained during green card interviews, including Hanne Daguman, who was born in Norway and went to school in California. Her husband also told Newsweek that she had no criminal record beyond overstaying her visa.
Shasteen told KNSD he feels “betrayed” by what has happened to his wife, 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 Sopimpa’s detention 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 Happens Next
Poulsen said he is working to secure Sopimpa’s release on bond. Because she was taken into custody, he added, Sopimpa and her husband will have to restart much of the green card process “almost from scratch,” this time while navigating immigration court.
