I really have a hard time feeling any sympathy for the self-centered self-righteous voluntarily ignorant who voted for neo-nazi fascist fotze pig NOT MY pres drumpf/trump who are now experiencing the "rewards" of their vote. I do want them to be treated fairly, I want their civil liberties and human rights to be honored, and I want them to realize their vote brought these trials and tribulations on them. From the Daily Mail and the New York Times.....
Self-branded MAGA loyalist who voted for Trump three times in support of his immigration policies is left raging after ICE agents take his Russian wife away in handcuffs
A self-branded MAGA loyalist and his wife are living in fear after she was grabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Brent Jindra told The New York Times that he considered himself a MAGA patriot until his wife, Galina Bobreneva, 40, was detained by ICE at an airport in Burbank, California, on July 13.
'She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river,' said Jindra about his wife. 'She came in Trump's beautiful, big front door.'
Jindra, a 48-year-old tech salesman, voted for Trump three times and was drawn by the president's immigration policies.
The couple departed from San Francisco in July. Jindra had to meet clients, while Bobreneva planned to connect with friends before an ICE agent in plain clothes stopped them.
'Congratulations, you've been chosen for secondary screening,' the agent said to Bobreneva, according to the couple.
About 15 minutes later, she was handcuffed and taken to a holding cell in downtown Los Angeles in an unmarked vehicle.
Bobreneva, a Russian national, arrived in the US in 2021 and extended her visa twice after the war in Ukraine. She applied for asylum in 2022 and has a pending green card application. Her lawyer told the Times that she had always had lawful status.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to the Daily Mail: 'On July 13, ICE arrested Galina Bobreneva, an illegal alien from Russia during a targeted operation at the Hollywood Burbank Airport. Bobreneva entered the U.S. on November 5, 2021, with permission to stay until May 4, 2022. She overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation's laws. On July 29 she was released from ICE custody on bond.
'To be clear, work authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States.
'We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the CBP Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now. We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.
'DHS reversed the horrendous Biden-era policy that allowed aliens in our country illegally to jet around our country. Under President Trump, DHS will no longer tolerate this. This administration is working diligently to ensure that aliens in our country illegally can no longer fly unless it is out of our country to self-deport.'
Jindra said that he was drawn to the MAGA movement to counter the illegal entry of criminals but never expected the president's agenda to turn on people who entered legally.
'A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she's going,' recalled Jindra.
His wife was detained for 16 days, spending a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles before being held for two weeks at a detention center in Adelanto.
She was released on a $35,000 bond and was ordered to wear an electronic monitor. She claimed that conditions inside the detention center were horrid.
'I felt like a piece of meat, not like a human,' recalled Bobreneva.
She said that she was deprived of sleep because the lights were never turned off, while radios worn by guards constantly blared noise.
Bobreneva told the outlet that only four showers worked for 120 women, while safe drinking water was rare.
She added that health care was denied and remembered a pregnant diabetic woman pleading for insulin to no avail.
A Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement to the 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.'
Bobreneva is due to report to ICE in San Francisco on September 7.
But for now, Jindra said: 'We are living in fear in my own country.'
Her first court appearance is scheduled for October 22.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE.
Early this month, the family of an ICE detainee in California published a video that appears to reveal worm-like creatures swimming in a bottle of drinking water detainees were given.
The family of Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, shared the video showing water allegedly being supplied to those held at the Adelanto Immigration Detention Center.
Parias remains in federal custody pending his deportation to Mexico.
The video surfaced just weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to provide those detained at the facility 'clean, potable drinking water' in 24 hours, the Guardian reported.
The ruling followed a class-action lawsuit that accused the facility of forcing detainees to endure 'dangerous conditions,' including allegedly denying sufficient food, clean drinking water and adequate medical care,' according to the outlet.
Years of Trump Support Came Undone in 15 Minutes in an Airport.
The case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people who have active immigration cases and no criminal history.
Miriam Jordan, a national immigration correspondent, reported from Redwood City, Calif., and San Francisco.
Brent Jindra, a tech salesman, voted for President Trump three times, drawn by his aggressive immigration agenda. He never imagined the crackdown would ensnare his own wife.
Last month, moments after the couple got off their flight in Burbank, Calif., a young man in a brown hooded sweatshirt stopped Galina Bobreneva.
“Congratulations, you’ve been chosen for secondary screening,” he told her, according to the couple’s recollection.
The man was a federal agent, and after questioning Ms. Bobreneva for about 15 minutes, he led her away in handcuffs to an unmarked vehicle.
“I’m only doing my job,” he said. “Everything will be OK.”
So began a 16-day ordeal: a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles; two weeks in a Mojave Desert detention center and a frantic legal effort to win her release.
Freed on a $35,000 bond with an electronic monitor clamped to her ankle, she is now fighting to stay in the United States against federal charges of overstaying her visa.
Ms. Bobreneva, who is from Russia, has a pending green card application, and her lawyer asserts that she was never out of lawful status.
Her case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people whose visas have expired but who have active immigration cases and no criminal history.
Although green-card applicants with expired visas can be detained under federal law, previous administrations did not consider them to be in the country unlawfully. But as the Trump administration seeks to nearly double its daily arrests to 2,000 people, it is detaining and attempting to deport thousands of people who believed they were following the rules.
“The allure of the MAGA campaign was around illegal entries of criminals,” said Mr. Jindra, 48. “There was never a mandate for this president to turn the barrel of the gun and start going after people who legally entered.”
In response to questions about Ms. Bobreneva’s case, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that she was “an illegal alien” targeted for arrest because “she overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.”
“To be clear, work authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States,” the agency said in a statement.
Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda, which helped propel him to the White House for a second term, is becoming a vulnerability for the Republican Party ahead of the midterms as even some members of his base have begun condemning ICE’s hard-line tactics.
Mr. Jindra considered himself a MAGA patriot until his wife’s detention.
“She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river,” he said. “She came in Trump’s beautiful, big front door.”
Ms. Bobreneva arrived on a tourist visa in late 2021, extended it twice following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and applied for asylum in 2022. She met Mr. Jindra in March 2025 and by December they were married.
“It was your storybook romance,” he said.
Mr. Jindra petitioned in April to sponsor his wife for a marriage-based green card. They received official confirmation the application had been accepted. She was fingerprinted.
The newlyweds bought a “dream house” in Cleveland, Ohio, where Mr. Jindra was raised, and intended to relocate there soon.
They planned a trip to Sonoma County’s wine country to celebrate Ms. Bobreneva’s 40th birthday on July 16. Mr. Jindra booked a suite at a boutique hotel, prepaid for visits to three vineyards and hired a driver.
They never made it.
On July 13, the couple boarded a flight from San Francisco to Burbank, where Mr. Jindra planned to meet clients and Ms. Bobreneva to see friends.
Approached by plainclothes agents at the airport, the couple first thought it was a ruse.
“When the ICE badge was flipped, you could tell that was legit,” recalled Mr. Jindra, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He immediately called their immigration lawyer, but the agents refused to speak with him. They ushered Ms. Bobreneva into a room, leaving her husband on the concourse, flanked by Burbank airport police, he said.
Inside, the agents told Ms. Bobreneva that she had overstayed her visa. “I was absolutely sure this was a mistake,” she said.
She explained that she was in the process of securing a green card and presented documents.
When an agent pulled out handcuffs, Ms. Bobreneva was stunned. She asked to give her engagement ring and other jewelry to her husband. They then led her away, saying that Mr. Jindra would know where to find her.
“A U.S. citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she’s going,” recalled Mr. Jindra.
The white S.U.V. sped off into the darkness. Ms. Bobreneva, alone with two men, said she feared for her safety until they arrived at an ICE facility.
She was held in a frigid room with a handful of women. She recalled a gaunt diabetic immigrant in her 70s pleading for insulin, to no avail. Ms. Bobreneva curled up on the ground under a foil blanket.
About 18 hours later, she was shackled at the ankles, waist and wrists and loaded into an unmarked van with several other immigrants. They bounced up and down in the sweltering vehicle as it raced toward the detention center in Adelanto.
“I felt like a piece of meat, not like a human,” recalled Ms. Bobreneva.
By the time she changed into blue prison garb and was assigned bunk L63 — a lower bed in the women’s section — it was 5 a.m. Thirty minutes later, as she drifted off to sleep, orders blared over the loudspeaker for detainee count and breakfast lineup.
Sleep deprivation was a constant, she said. Lights were always on. Hand-held radios carried by the guards crackled day and night. On her birthday, Ms. Bobreneva recalled, she shared chocolate she had ordered from the commissary with fellow Russian-speaking detainees from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Armenia.
Ms. Bobreneva described neglect, filth and people in despair.
For 120 women, there were seven showers; only four worked. Potable water was scarce; ailing people were denied care until they required hospitalization, she said, echoing allegations in a federal lawsuit.
The GEO Group, which operates the detention center, declined to comment on Ms. Bobreneva’s allegations and referred questions to ICE.
In a statement, a homeland security spokesperson said: “Any claim that there are subprime conditions at Adelanto ICE processing facility are FALSE. All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”
ICE did not respond to questions.
“You become a number,” she said. “Nobody cares. There is zero empathy.”
Mr. Jindra visited when allowed, three times a week, and scrambled to secure her release.
Two weeks passed.
Their lawyer, Patrick Valdez, requested a bond hearing, scheduled for July 28. Ms. Bobreneva was released July 29 on a $35,000 bond with an ankle monitor and an order to report to ICE in San Francisco Aug. 5.
Over dinner at a seafood restaurant in Redwood City the night before her appointment, Ms. Bobreneva barely touched her crab cakes. She had been struggling to sleep and was terrified of being detained again.
“I never thought that it was so easy to take freedom from anyone,” she said.
Mr. Jindra, too, was nervous.
“We are living in fear in my own country,” he said.
Early the next morning, they joined a line outside the immigration building that wrapped around the block. Ms. Bobreneva entered with her lawyer more than two hours later.
They emerged with instructions from ICE to report back on Sept. 7.
The couple returned to Redwood City, where unopened birthday gifts and deflating balloons sat on their dining room table, alongside a vase of two dozen wilted roses.
“I cannot celebrate anything,” Ms. Bobreneva said.
Her first court appearance is Oct. 22, but her case will take months to be resolved.
Wearing the electronic monitor, Ms. Bobreneva is confined to a tight perimeter.
Last Sunday, the couple ventured to the beach.
Ms. Bobreneva was “enjoying her freedom,” Mr. Jindra said, “all 75-mile radius of it.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Miriam Jordan reports from a grass roots perspective on immigrants and their impact on the demographics, society and economy of the United States.
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 13, 2026, Section A, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Voter Didn’t Think ICE Would Come for Wife.
Our Coverage of U.S. Immigration
Airport Arrests: Galina Bobreneva was arrested after getting off a flight for overstaying her visa. The case represents a new front in President Trump’s mass deportation drive: arrests at airports of people who have active immigration cases and no criminal history.
Minnesota Threats Case Dismissed: The government said it could not prove that a man accused of threatening federal agents had committed a crime, adding to the scores of cases in the administration’s deportation efforts that have unraveled.
ICE Agent Pleads Guilty: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge for throwing an activist to the ground near Chicago last year during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in the region.
Federal Agent Points Gun at Woman: An ICE agent brandished a gun at a Virginia woman who had shouted at him, according to videos of the encounter, the latest in a string of clashes between immigration agents and drivers.
Gloves With Electric Shocks: The Trump administration plans to spend millions of dollars equipping immigration officers with gloves that can deliver electric shocks. Critics have expressed alarm over equipping immigration agents with another tool that they say could actually escalate their use of force.
No comments:
Post a Comment