What Happened
On Nov. 24, 2025, Matheus Silveira, a Brazilian national who had overstayed an expired student visa, went with his wife, Hannah Silveira, a California attorney and Army veteran, to his green card interview at a USCIS office in San Diego. His application was approved. Then, Hannah said, an officer told the couple “people in the hallway” wanted to speak with them; four ICE agents burst in, pinned Matheus against a wall, and arrested him on an outstanding warrant tied to the visa overstay.
Matheus gave up the green card process and requested voluntary departure instead of formal deportation, which a judge approved for a commercial flight out of the country. But on Jan. 26, 2026, ICE moved him without notifying his wife or lawyer. She lost contact with him overnight; when she called the detention center, staff told her only that he was “no longer in the system.” His lawyer later confirmed he had been transferred first to El Paso, Texas, then to a detention facility in Richwood, Louisiana — a site used for deportation flights.
On Feb. 11, 2026, after nearly three months in detention, Matheus arrived in Brazil on a repatriation flight to Belo Horizonte and reunited with family in Rio de Janeiro. Hannah, who had left her legal career in California to prepare for the move, followed him to Brazil about a week later. The terms of his departure bar him from returning to the U.S. for 10 years.
