Louisiana Cook With No U.S. Criminal Record Is Arrested by ICE as His Pregnant Fiancée Says the Family Is Left Shattered

ST. ROSE, LA — A routine immigration check-in in St. Rose turned into a sudden arrest for a Louisiana family already struggling to stay together. Martin Teran, a 25-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker who worked as a cook, was detained by federal agents while his fiancée, Olivia Carpenter, filmed the encounter and pleaded for help.

Carpenter, who is six months pregnant, said agents forced her aside as they took Teran down in the waiting area of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office. She said the arrest left her shaken and fearing she may have to raise the couple’s children while Teran remains in ICE custody.

Video shows a fast and forceful arrest inside the waiting room

The Oct. 28 arrest unfolded in moments after Teran and Carpenter arrived at the federal office expecting a quick appointment. Carpenter said agents rushed in when Teran’s name was called, pressed him against a wall and then forced him to the ground before handcuffing him.

Video of the incident shows Carpenter being pushed back as she protested that she was pregnant. She said an agent repeatedly shoved her toward the exit while telling her to leave. Through the glass, she watched officers drag Teran away. The couple had gone to the office believing they would be in and out within minutes.

Carpenter said Teran called out to her during the arrest, and she yelled back that she was trying to understand why it was happening. The scene took place in a waiting area rather than during a street raid, underscoring how immigration arrests have increasingly been carried out in less public settings.

Teran’s record and immigration case are at the center of the dispute

Public records show Teran has no criminal citations or arrests in the United States. According to Carpenter and federal officials, he entered the country illegally in 2024, later applied for asylum at the border with Mexico and was released on parole with an ankle monitor.

An ICE spokesperson said an immigration judge issued a deportation order in October and that the case remains under appeal. The agency also said Teran had multiple parole violations, though it did not provide details. Carpenter disputes the idea that he posed a danger, saying he had followed the process he was told to follow.

ICE said Teran became aggressive, resisted arrest and tried to flee when agents detained him. Carpenter said she only touched an officer’s arm while trying to ask what was happening. The agency said he remains in custody pending removal proceedings and will receive due process.

A family built in Louisiana now faces separation

Carpenter said the couple’s life together grew out of a restaurant job in New Orleans, where she was a server and Teran worked as a cook. She said he wooed her with meals after shifts and that, early on, she paid little attention to his immigration status. What she remembers most is the ankle monitor strapped to his leg.

Born in Florida and raised mostly in Louisiana, Carpenter said the relationship became more serious after they learned they were expecting their son, Everett, who is now eight months old. The couple got engaged around the holidays, and Carpenter later lost her job after missing shifts to care for the baby. Teran worked long hours to keep the household going.

Now Carpenter is staying with her sister in St. Rose while seeking work and caring for Everett full time. Teran is being held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Jena after spending time in several pretrial jails, she said.

The arrest came amid a wider federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants

Teran’s detention fits into a broader enforcement push by President Donald Trump’s administration targeting undocumented immigrants, including many without criminal records. Immigration authorities have detained large numbers of people as part of a surge that has produced record arrests over the past six months.

People without criminal histories made up a majority of those detained, according to the account described by federal officials and advocates. Carpenter said the fear that has followed the Trump administration’s immigration drive has reached deep into mixed-status families like hers, where one person can be legal while another is not.

She said the family was already alarmed when Border Patrol agents swept through Louisiana last December and made mass arrests. After that, she said, the possibility of detention never felt far away. “There is no hiding from them,” she said.

Election backlash may not change enforcement soon

Teran’s arrest came just days before Democrats won sweeping midterm victories in House and Senate races. Exit polling found that immigration was a major issue for voters, with 60 percent in an Associated Press survey saying the administration had gone too far.

Even so, the political shift is unlikely to slow enforcement quickly, according to both the administration and immigration advocates. Congress has already approved a large pool of money for immigration enforcement, and the White House can veto legislation that would weaken the crackdown.

Michael O’Hanlon of the Brookings Institution said families like Carpenter’s may have to wait years for meaningful change. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin also posted after the election that deportations would continue. Carpenter said she had not spent much time thinking about politics before Teran’s arrest, but now plans to vote in the next election.

Carpenter says the case has become personal, not political

Carpenter said she has mostly avoided party politics, even though much of her family identifies as Republican. But Teran’s detention has changed how she sees the issue, especially with a child on the way and another at home who depends on both parents.

She said the hardest part is watching a family that has tried to do things the right way still face separation. “If you’re going through the process and if you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do, then why are you being taken away from your family?” she said.

For Carpenter, the question is no longer abstract. It is tied to a fiancé in detention, a baby son at home and a pregnancy that may carry her into labor without Teran there. “I shouldn’t have to give birth without my fiancé,” she said.