Paul Frame holds up photo of his detained husband, Jose “Ivan” Nuñez

In mid-January, Rhode Island mom Lilian Calderon was nearly deported for trying to get in line for legal status. The undocumented mom of two and her husband, a U.S. citizen, had gone to an immigration interview with photographs and documents testifying to the authenticity of their relationship in hand, only to have Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) take her into custody.

Calderon was eventually reunited with her family, but not without an intervention from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which sued for her release. It turns out, Calderon wasn’t alone in being targeted. According to an ICE affidavit filed in Calderon’s case, mass deportation agents have arrested six other immigrants in Rhode Island and Massachusetts at similar appointments. Judge Mark Wolf called Calderon’s arrest, “part of a pattern”:

He outlined the case of Fabiano Mateus de Oliveira, a Brazilian national also arrested in January after he went to a government office seeking permanent residency through his marriage to an American. In March 2017, Leandro Arriaga Gil, a Dominican man, and four other unauthorized immigrants were arrested at a Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Lawrence under similar circumstances, Wolf noted. In his affidavit, [ICE Field Office deputy director Todd] Lyons wrote that in addition to Calderon and Oliveira, five other people had been detained in January under similar circumstances. One person was detained and released the same day, he said.

In December, Colorado dad Melecio Andazola Morales was deported after being taken into custody at his immigration interview. “We thought it was the last step for him to finally become a permanent resident,” said his daughter Viviana, a U.S. citizen. She had petitioned for him, filed paperwork, paid fees and hired a lawyer, yet he was still taken into custody and deported despite having no criminal record. “Honestly, it was incredibly cruel,” Viviana later said. “In retrospect, now I know they had planned that all along. My dad was trying to do right by the law.”