Giovanna Perez, 35, drove her four U.S. citizen children from Weslaco to Naval Air Station Corpus Christi on Sept. 21, 2026, to pick up military dependent ID cards. Navy personnel at the base reported her to ICE, and officers who appeared to already know about her pending Parole in Place application directed her to an ICE office in Harlingen, where she was booked and issued a notice to appear in immigration court. Perez, who was brought to the U.S. from Mexico at age 6 and has no criminal record or prior deportation order, is married to Pedro Gutierrez, a U.S. citizen who recently enlisted in the Army and is completing basic training at Fort Benning. Her attorney said the case shows the military's Parole in Place program, meant to help military families gain legal status, being used instead as a tip line to ICE; Perez still received the IDs and plans to attend her husband's graduation, with a court date set five days later.