MIRAMAR, Fla. — Brandon Garrison is fighting to keep his wife Gabriela Sousa in the United States.

In 2023, Sousa came to the U.S. from Venezuela under something called Humanitarian Parole, essentially allowing her to stay in the country for two years.

In that time, she met Garrison and fell in love, but the clock on her immigration status was ticking.

The couple decided to get married before her humanitarian parole end date, hoping to start the process to change her status so she could remain in the U.S.

“The very next day after we got married, I tried to start the process to adjust status,” said Garrison. “The plan was to do it before her parole expired.”

Her parole expired two days after they got married, which meant she was officially in the United States illegally.

Immigration attorney Saman Movassaghi Gonzalez said the marriage itself isn’t enough to obtain legal status.

“Unfortunately, getting married to a United States citizen does not give you any legal rights to continue to stay in the United States if you are not on your own, what we call admissible means,” said Gonzalez. “If you, on your own, do not have any roadblocks into adjusting your status in the U.S.”

Months after their wedding, the couple had a dispute and Sousa was arrested for misdemeanor battery against Garrison, something he said was a misunderstanding.

“Essentially the state attorney agreed to not file the charges,” he said.

According to court records, the case was dismissed, but Sousa was then put into ICE detention.

Garrison said for the last five months she has been shuffled around the state, currently in a Baker County facility outside of Jacksonville.

He has only been able to see her on video calls.

Gonzalez says Sousa will likely need to voluntarily leave the country, which means she would face a three-year penalty before being allowed to apply for status again.

“We see a lot of these cases where we are encouraging them to take the voluntary departure so that they do not have a removal order,” said Gonzalez.

If she applies for asylum and loses, Sousa could face a ten-year penalty.

The couple must make a decision in the next few weeks.

Garrison said they may move to Colombia to stay together and wait it out.

“I mean, what choice do I got?” said Garrison. “I don’t have any. I tried everything.”

At this point, only ICE can determine if Sousa can stay.

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