The wife of an active-duty U.S. Army soldier walked out of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on the Norcross-Peachtree Corners border on Aug. 19 after reporting for a required check-in after a judge ordered her deportation.
Tony Kozycki, an attorney representing the woman, said she was not detained as expected after community outpouring and press coverage. Her husband is completing military training away from home.
The Colombian-born woman reported to an ICE processing center at 8 a.m. on Aug. 19, after a metro Atlanta immigration judge on Aug. 14 denied her asylum request and ordered her removed from the United States. Her attorneys at Kozycki Law continue to represent her as the immigration matter proceeds.
Army wife spared detainment
Her name and place of residence is being withheld by attorneys because of safety concerns.
According to a recent Associated Press investigation, more than 50 family members of active-duty service members and veterans have been detained by immigration authorities since January 2025. At least six have been deported, and another has departed the country voluntarily.
Kozycki, a U.S. Navy combat veteran, said her release was surprising and highlighted a much larger problem.
“We’ve been in this area for a while, so we’ve seen stuff happen in different administrations,” he said. “It just wasn’t this aggressive before … If you got a deportation order, they wouldn’t necessarily bring you in if they didn’t have a bed for you. Now, they’ve changed that … what they’re doing is bringing them in, and they’ll just leave them in the processing center.”
Kozycki said his client is back home, wearing an ankle monitor. He picked up the case on Aug. 18 and is finding out whether an appeal of her deportation order has been filed. She has a special military-related application pending.
Navy veteran’s policy pitch
Kozycki, campaigning against the 7th District incumbent U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Suwanee), is calling on Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Trump administration to protect the immediate families of active-duty service members and veterans, particularly when a service member is away fulfilling military obligations.
“We can enforce our immigration laws and protect military families at the same time,” he said. “It is tragic to me to think that a service member that’s preparing to serve during a time of war has to have in the back of his mind that when he gets home, his wife’s not going to be at home. If we can agree on one thing as a country, that should be an easy one.”
The Aug. 19 gathering was supported by Common Defense Georgia, Repatriate Our Patriots, and American Families United.
Kozycki, who grew up in LaGrange, has represented several immigration cases involving veterans and military families, including U.S. Army veteran Godfrey Wade, whose deportation after decades in the United States drew national attention.
“There’s a lot of conversation we can have about what’s going on in immigration enforcement, whether it’s good for the country or bad for the country,” Kozycki said. ”But I wish that if we could get one thing straight, it’s that what’s happening right now is too much. It’s too far, we have crossed a line. Where that line is, we need to talk about as a community, as a nation.”
