He was waiting for his son to return from the USS Lincoln. Then Border Patrol arrested him.

In this photo courtesy of Katherine Delgado shows her step-father Luis Manuel Aviles, left, and her brother Joshua Aviles stand outside their home in Oct. 2025, shortly before Joshua deployed on the USS Lincoln the following month in Key West, Fla. (Katherine Delgado via the AP) 2026-08-23T20:03:59Z When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month on the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy — a vessel that set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, stirring concerns about supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among soldiers. Luis Manuel Aviles, 48, was arrested after leaving his house to take his car to the mechanic, according to his wife, Argelia Aviles. She said her husband, a handyman in Key West, Florida, has a permit to work in the United States. Originally from Nicaragua, he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years. “He dedicates himself only to work so he can put food on the table at home. He is a good father. He loves his children with all his soul,” said Argelia, 47. Aviles’ arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda , detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops. At least six family members have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions , which the government does not track. One spouse, the wife of a U.S. soldier who spent more than a month in federal immigration detention, was removed from a deportation flight to Brazil after the AP’s reporting. One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Aviles on Saturday in Key West and that he will remain in ICE custody while the government seeks to deport him. (