PARRIS ISLAND, South Carolina — Pvt. Ramirez Garcia considered giving up a lot of times during her recruit training at Marine Corps Depot Parris Island.
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“I’m glad I pushed through,” said the newly graduated Marine, who withheld her first name out of caution as a member of the military. “I’m glad I was able to make it to today,” she said on Friday.
But two important people weren’t there on this milestone day: mom and dad. According to Ramirez Garcia’s sister Emily, their parents are in the U.S. on a work visa and were too scared to attend the graduation when they heard ICE could be doing security checks.
“They were going to come. It was going to be a big thing. We were going to go to the beach right after. All those plans had to go out the window because they said ICE would be here,” said Emily Ramirez, who added she was “so incredibly proud” of her sister. “I can’t believe she’s a Marine.”
NBC News did not see ICE officers or agents at the graduation on Friday. Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Yarbrough, a public affairs officer at the base, said that due to safety protocols he couldn’t confirm from what agency the federal officers who assisted with security checks hailed from. He said federal officers have helped with security at other previous events.
Earlier this week, NBC News reported that ICE would be stationed outside Marine Corps graduation events Thursday and Friday to check for undocumented family members. The news upended family plans, elicited national reaction and drew out some protesters, including Marine veterans.
“Undocumented people are not trying to come on base. We have never had this problem,” said Marine veteran Dayle Soto, one of about 17 protesters who stood on the boundary of the federal installation to protest the presence of federal officers ahead of the graduation.
Soto, 30, trained at Parris Island and graduated in 2016. Her husband also trained there and is a child of immigrants. She called the presence of federal agents “a real slap in the face, and it just seems like a real show — what is that saying to our Marines as well?”
Ahead of the graduation ceremony, the base had issued a warning to families that federal law enforcement personnel would be at the base “to conduct enhanced screening and lawful immigration status inquiries.”
Because of the ongoing U.S. conflict with Iran, the Marine Corps announced it was tightening security, requiring everyone — including all passengers in cars entering the base, not just the drivers, as is done when security measures are more relaxed — to present REAL IDs, U.S. passports or U.S. birth certificates to access any sites.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously told NBC News that any suggestion that ICE would make arrests was false. “ICE will not be making arrests at the basic training graduation in Parris Island, SC,” the spokesperson said.
Still, the announcement drew immediate backlash, and the base tempered its warning to visitors, saying only that “federal law enforcement personnel will be present at installation access points.”
But by then, word had spread along with fear and concern among immigrant families and their advocates.
Currently, an estimated 17% of active service members have immigrant parents and 12% have immigrant family members, according to an analysis of Census data by the Vera Institute of Justice, a group focused on ending mass incarceration, including of immigrants.
As of February 2024, about 40,000 foreign nationals were in the military and about 115,000 foreign nationals were U.S. veterans, according to a Congressional Research Service report.
The Marines heavily recruit from immigrant families, and their pitch often includes telling potential recruits that joining up could help them with family members’ immigration status, advocates and attorneys said.
“It’s just horrific we are robbing families of the opportunity to celebrate with their soldier, with their family,” said Aimee Deverall, an immigration attorney who is co-chairwoman of the Low Country Immigration Coalition. She said she has “plenty” of families she assists that have a son or daughter who has enlisted.
Immediate relatives of active duty personnel and veterans — parents, unmarried children and spouses — who are undocumented are eligible for “parole in place,” which gives them a temporary reprieve from deportation and allows them to apply for a green card and permission to work.
Currently, there is about a two-year wait for parole in place, which leaves family members vulnerable amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, Deverall said.
On Thursday, as part of the pre-graduation presentations and events, 16 recruits from 11 countries became American citizens in a naturalization ceremony.
Each one of them was called by name, with their original country also announced, drawing whoops and cheers from the attendees.
Missing the graduation
Giovanni Castañeda Nieto, 18, beamed as he was surrounded by his family on Thursday during a pre-graduation event for Marines and their relatives.
But he had to share the moment with his mother by video on his phone.
Maybelline Nieto Perla, his cousin, told Noticias Telemundo that the recruit’s mother didn’t attend due to “immigration” concerns. The family “would rather not risk everything because she is already in the process” of obtaining a legal status, Nieto Perla said.
The family’s pride over having their first U.S. Marine was mixed with his mother’s sadness at not being able to be at his graduation.
“She told us when we were leaving she was going to cry, and she did cry,” Nieto Perla said, speaking of the mom.
Margaret Stock, an immigration attorney and retired U.S. Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, said that checking family members’ status at a graduation ceremony is “bad for morale.”
“Parents are a very heavy influence on whether someone is willing to serve,” she said. Getting parents on board with a person’s enlistment is heavily emphasized in Pentagon materials, particularly with Hispanic families, Stock said.
“I’m talking about citizens born here whose parents are undocumented, that’s a huge part of the military, particularly the Marine Corps,” she said.
At Parris Island, Yarbrough explained, undocumented immigrants have never been allowed on the installation. Graduates have to have family members submit the required documentation for them to attend graduation and family day.
Base access policies include instructions that foreign visitors must have a “permanent personnel sponsor” and have to fill out a government form that asks for Social Security, passport and alien numbers, among other things.
On Thursday and Friday, 17 foreign nationals came in for graduation, Yarbrough said, and all had legal immigration status.
Stock said there have been cases of undocumented families being arrested trying to enter military bases. But regarding checks at Parris Island, security is a “red herring,” she said.
“Immigration status has nothing to do with security. You could be just as dangerous if you are a U.S. citizen coming on the base. Most of the threat right now is coming from U.S.-born citizens who have been radicalized,” Stock said.
The base should have a security plan, she added, “but it shouldn’t be based on somebody’s immigration status.”
At the Morning Colors Ceremony on Friday, where a Marine bell was rung eight times and the American flag was raised, Brig. Gen. Ahmed Williams, commanding general of the base and eastern recruiting region, called for applause for parents and families attending the graduation and related events.
“Thank you for trusting us with your greatest treasure,” Williams said. “We understand how important it is.”