Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents mocked a U.S. Army wife who was returned to the United States after being put on a deportation flight to her native Brazil.<\/p>\n
Maisa Lopes Eliaser was mid-flight Wednesday with several other immigrants when agents received a call about her. She told the Associated Press that an ICE agent then asked her if she wanted to continue to Brazil or return to the U.S. Eliaser\u2019s husband, Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, told the AP that they didn\u2019t know who made the call, \u201cbut someone made the phone call, and then she came back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other detainees were led off of the plane in Brazil, but Eliaser was allowed to stay on board to return to Louisiana. Agents then told her that thanks to videos and news reports about her case, she was \u201cfamous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaramillo, an aviation operations specialist who has served in the Army for more than 10 years, was forced to take leave from his duties training soldiers to care for his five-year-old stepson after she was detained last month at an immigration appointment. The government previously told the AP that Eliaser had been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in April for overstaying a tourist visa.<\/p>\n
Now Eliaser has an appointment Monday to reopen her case and green card application, and the couple is worried. Jaramillo, who is a U.S. citizen and married Eliaser in 2024, has been told there won\u2019t be any more issues. But he and his wife \u201care really, really, really scared about it, but you know, we have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI told the person who gave me the appointment, \u2018Hey sir, don\u2019t play with me, I\u2019ve been through a lot,\u2019\u201d Jaramillo told the AP.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has disrespected the immigrant family members of U.S. military personnel, with ICE agents raiding a military base to arrest a newlywed soldier\u2019s wife and staking out Marine Corps graduations to detain immigrants. While Democrats in Congress are investigating deportations of military personnel and their families, Eliaser was fortunate enough to be allowed to return to the U.S. Others have not been so lucky.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than a month since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration linked Taylor Farms to the deadly cyclospora outbreak, and yet the agency is only just now sending investigators to visit the produce grower\u2019s facilities. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Investigators with the FDA finally arrived at Taylor Farms\u2019s operation in Mexico to inspect facilities linked to the parasite that can cause explosive bowel movements, four U.S. officials told The Washington Post Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Donald Prater, the FDA\u2019s acting deputy commissioner for food, said that there was extensive research\u00a0required before the agency could launch an investigation\u00a0into the growing conditions.<\/p>\n
But food safety experts and some former top FDA officials criticized the agency for waiting so long after publicly linking the company\u2019s shredded lettuce to a national outbreak that has sickened more than 13,000 people\u00a0and caused two deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barbara Kowalcyk, director of George Washington University\u2019s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security, told the Post that in-person work at the facility was necessary for prevention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally, as soon as [the FDA] traced it back to the source, they would be out there working with the facility and specifically working with Taylor Farms to do a root-cause analysis so that we can understand what happened,\u201d Kowalcyk said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what\u2019s going to drive prevention going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
On July 17, the FDA notified Taylor Farms that its shredded iceberg lettuce had tested positive for cyclospora. Taylor Farms falsely claimed that the FDA had later walked back its determination, but still promptly recalled all of the shredded iceberg lettuce that was grown and processed in central Mexico out of an \u201cabundance of caution.\u201d A sanitation inspection conducted by Mexican officials between July 18 and July 20 tested negative for cyclospora. The company\u2019s website claims that its own testing of roughly 2,000 samples also tested negative for the parasite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Taylor Farms is the country\u2019s largest supplier of fresh produce, and is also pro-Donald Trump. The company sells products to Walmart, Sam\u2019s Club, Kroger, SYSCO, Aldi, Target, and Dollar General.<\/p>\n