When Luis Manuel Aviles was arrested by immigration authorities, his son was entering his ninth month aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln with the Navy. The ship has set a U.S. military record for uninterrupted time at sea, a deployment that has drawn attention not just for its length but for the strain it has put on service members and their families.

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 permission 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.

The arrest comes as the Trump administration rolls back immigration protections for military families in pursuit of its mass deportation agenda, detaining at least dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops. That makes the case part of a broader policy shift affecting families that, in another context, might have expected military service to simplify immigration issues rather than complicate them.

At least six family members have been deported and one has self-deported, according to an Associated Press accounting of such detentions — the first of its kind — 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 AP reporting.

One of the military’s most widely publicized 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 United States. Not everyone qualifies, including people who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border.

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.

“Having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation’s laws,” the department said Sunday, adding that the Trump administration “does not pick and choose which laws to enforce.”

Aviles’ son said he has been working 12-hour shifts for more than 250 days without a break aboard the USS Lincoln, which is deployed in the Middle East. The deployment has drawn widespread concern over the impact on service members who are away from land for long periods, food shortages, and growing strain on the ship and its equipment, making personal emergencies at home especially difficult to absorb.

The Pentagon referred questions to the Navy. The Navy did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Sunday afternoon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously said conditions aboard the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.”

Joshua Aviles wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday that he was still aboard the USS Lincoln, “fighting for a country that has given me everything,” when he received a call that morning about his father’s detention.

“This is heartbreaking for me. I don’t know how I can mentally continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly treated like a criminal,” Joshua Aviles wrote.

Katherine Delgado, 28, Joshua Aviles’ sister, said he joined the military in part because he believed it would improve his father’s chances of getting citizenship and would mean he would “no longer be living in fear of being arrested.”

She said being apart from Joshua, whom she calls her “best friend” and her “ride-or-die,” has been devastating.

“I spent weeks without knowing where he was,” Delgado said. Once she heard from him and was told he was not getting enough food, she said she spent hundreds of dollars sending care packages with food and hygiene products, some of which never arrived.

Joshua is “supposed to come home soon,” Delgado said, referring to news that the ship her brother is on will soon be brought out of service in the Middle East. “And he’s gonna come home without his father.”

The lengthy deployment has also been difficult for Luis Aviles, according to his wife. He told her he had been looking forward to the deployment finally ending, and when six months passed without his son returning, he was distraught, she said.

“He was excited,” she said. “He wanted to hug his son, as he hadn’t seen him for nine months.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com