‘MAGA loyalist’ who voted for Trump due to immigration policies fuming as wife detained by ICE
Donald Trump has always been a president that has split opinion but his approach to immigration is certainly one of his most controversial policies.
While his travel ban has meant that far fewer people from countries around the world are able to actually visit the US, he is also determined to remove what he describes as 'illegal aliens' from living in the country, as part of his plea to 'Make America Safe Again'.
This has meant that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has worked to remove a huge number of immigrants living in America, often citing links to crime or gangs, with thousands of people sent to one of the world's worst prisons last year.
But in many cases, the people who have been deported or detained have been completely innocent, such as five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos who was detained earlier this year.
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That has seemingly now extended to 40-year-old Russian woman Galina Bobreneva, who was taken away from her husband Brent Jindra at an airport in California back in July.
The irony here is that 48-year-old Jindra is a staunch Trump and MAGA supporter, who has voted for the president on three separate occasions, citing his approach to immigration as one of his main motives.
Naturally, there's plenty that could be said about karma or chickens coming home to roost etc, but Jindra was simply fearing for his wife when she was handcuffed and taken to a holding cell in downtown Los Angeles in an unmarked vehicle.
He has since said: `'She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river. She came in Trump's beautiful, big front door."
However, it was back in January when the Trump administration confirmed that it would freeze visa processing for people coming from 75 countries, which included Russia on the list.
Bobreneva arrived in the US back in 2021 and has stayed since the war with Ukraine broke out, with her lawyer suggesting to The New York Times that she has a pending green card application and that she has always had a lawful status in the country.
But in a statement to the outlet, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Bobreneva was 'an illegal alien' who was targeted because 'she overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation's laws.'
"To be clear, work authorisation or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States," the agency added.
Jindra suggested that he was drawn to the MAGA movement due to the strict approach to immigration, which he hoped would reduce the illegal entry of criminals coming into the country, but he never expected those same rules to be extended to his own wife.
"A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she's going," recalled Jindra.
She spent 16 days inside the 'horrid' detention centre before eventually being released on a $35,000 bond, while she was also ordered to wear an electronic monitor.
Bobreneva said: "I felt like a piece of meat, not like a human."
A Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to the NY Times: "Any claim that there are substandard conditions at the Adelanto ICE processing facility is FALSE.
"All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers."
Topics: Donald Trump
James Moorhouse