Maisa Lopes Eliaser was on a flight to Brazil this month. She was set to be deported. Then her phone rang mid-flight. Hours later, she was back home in Louisiana.

Eliaser, 32, is married to Army Staff Sgt. Alexis Jaramillo, 43. She came to the U.S. from Brazil in 2019 on a tourist visa. She stayed past the date on that visa. DHS says a judge gave her a final order to leave the country back in April. That kind of order is called a "removal order."

This story hits close to home in the Rio Grande Valley. Many families here have someone in the service. Some of those same families are also working on their papers. Eliaser's story could be any family down the road.

On July 8, ICE agents held Eliaser in Montgomery, Alabama. She and her family thought she was going to a green card meeting. Instead, agents took her into custody.

Earlier this month, AP named Eliaser as one of dozens of military spouses and parents caught up in a bigger push. The Trump government had rolled back rules that used to protect them. After that AP story, Democrats in Congress opened a probe.

On Wednesday, officers put Eliaser on a flight to Brazil. While the plane was in the air, ICE agents on board got a call about her case. An agent asked if she wanted to keep going or turn back. She chose to turn back. When the plane landed, other people on the flight got off in Brazil. Eliaser stayed on the plane. She flew back home.

Agents told her she was "famous." They said videos about her case were spreading online.

"Who made the call? We don't know," Jaramillo said. "But someone made the phone call, and then she came back."

DHS runs ICE. DHS did not answer AP right away when asked about her release.

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona is a former Navy officer. His office called the ICE office that had her case, his spokesperson said. Kelly has also spoken up for two other military families held by ICE.

"We need real solutions to fix our broken immigration system," Kelly said in a statement to AP. "Going after military families instead of real criminals doesn't solve anything." He called the policy "wrong and makes no sense at all."

Danitza James runs Repatriate Our Patriots. The group helps families facing this fight. It helped with Eliaser's case too.

"This family's reunion is proof of what's possible when people set politics aside and do right by those who serve," James said at a news conference. "We won't stop until every military family facing detention gets the same chance at justice."

Jaramillo works in aviation operations. He has served more than ten years. He trains soldiers at Fort Polk. He took time off work to watch Eliaser's 5-year-old son while she was locked up.

Eliaser's case is not the first like it. In the past year, Annie Ramos, 22, was held as her husband, an Army staff sergeant, got set to deploy. Public anger led to her release. Around that same time, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a combat veteran, told AP she called DHS herself. She asked DHS to free Deisy Rivera Ortega. Rivera Ortega is married to an Army sergeant who did three tours in Afghanistan. She was set free too.

Eliaser has another meeting on Monday. She will try to reopen her case. She also wants to move her green card bid forward. Jaramillo is a U.S. citizen. The couple married in 2024.

"We are really, really, really scared about it, but you know, we have to go," Jaramillo said. "I told the person who gave me the appointment, 'Hey sir, don't play with me, I've been through a lot.'"

Eliaser says she still cannot sleep well. She fears she will be sent back to the jail-like center. She says workers there treated her like "an animal."

"It felt like I was in a nightmare," she said. "I could not believe what was happening until I returned to my house. Day by day, I'm trying to recover from this trauma."