Border Report: The Unseen Cost of Detaining as Many Immigrants as Possible

After Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials left Ana bruised in her doorway in January, she thought maybe she’d escaped detention. 

But in October, when she went to a check-in appointment at the ICE offices in downtown San Diego, officers took her into custody. Her husband, Nick, who accompanied her to the appointment for moral support, was also detained.

The couple spent about five weeks at Otay Mesa Detention Center before their attorney was able to get them released through a writ of habeas corpus petition, which argues that the government has detained someone unlawfully, in federal court. In that time, they lost their jobs, their apartment and a car, they said. 

Nick has decided to return to Croatia while the couple waits to find out the results of Ana’s appeal in her asylum case. She will remain in the United States because she is still afraid she will be persecuted in her home country. 

But Nick has decided the potential of re-detention creates too much instability and insecurity for him. The persecution he faces as an immigrant in the United States is worse, he said, than what he believes he will experience in Croatia. 

“I cannot live in a country where law enforcement breaks the law,” he said. “It’s very hard to express my disappointment with this country in words. It’s monumental, my disappointment.” 

Ana and Nick’s situation is the latest example I’ve come across that shows what’s at stake when the government breaks the law in a way that causes harm. Even if the government is later corrected by the courts, as in this case with the habeas petitions for Ana and Nick, the harm has already been done, and most of the time, it is difficult to undo. 

This year, the Trump administration has used violence during arrests, arbitrary detentions and family separations — covered extensively by the press — to convince immigrants that they are not safe in the United States, and that they would be better off somewhere else. Many whom I’ve spoken with have decided to leave. 

“I feel like I have a price tag on my head,” Nick said.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

Nick said he loved the United States when he first arrived, especially because of its diversity. 

“This country isn’t great because of money and wealth,” Nick said. “It’s because of values and principles.”

The couple initially came to the United States about two decades ago on artist visas, with Nick performing as a concert pianist. Later, the Croatian government began to target Ana, and the couple felt they could no longer return. Ana applied for asylum.

A judge administratively closed Ana’s case more than 10 years ago without deciding whether she qualified for protection, meaning that the family could stay in the United States and work but did not have a path to green cards or citizenship. Under the first Trump administration, the case reopened. Now, Ana is waiting for a decision from the Board of Immigration Appeals. 

After officials came to the couple’s apartment in January and tried to yank Ana into the hallway, bruising her arm, she continued to go to check-in appointments required by ICE. In October, she and her husband went to her appointment. Her husband wore a suit. 

ICE officers detained them both. Nick asked why he was being detained — the appointment wasn’t even his. 

The officer told him it was because of a change in politics, he said. 

“Being arrested because politics changed is something I expect in Russia, not in America,” Nick said.

He said the couple spent about 40 hours in the federal building basement — much longer than the agency is supposed to hold people in the temporary cells there and much longer than the average time the agency recently told members of Congress who visited.

Nick said they slept on thin yoga mats with no pillows. It was cold, and the lights were always on, he said. Officials gave them barely edible sandwiches with a side of slimy carrots, he said.

Ana said one of the officers jeered at her, telling her he’d “finally” gotten her. She was so intimidated by his behavior that she waited until he left the basement to ask for the medications she takes. If she doesn’t get them on time, she can have serious withdrawal symptoms, including seizures or death, she said.

Nick and Ana recalled that as they were being transported to Otay Mesa Detention Center, he said to her, “I came to the U.S. to play at Carnegie Hall. Now I’m in shackles.”

At the detention center, both Ana and Nick struggled to get their medications, the couple said. 

On the first day, Ana asked for her medications and was told it likely wouldn’t come until the next day. She said by that afternoon, her muscles were twitching, and she felt chest pain. A guard called in an emergency, and she was finally able to get her medications. 

Nick said any time he requested to go to the medical unit, the staff there would put him in a cold room under observation for a couple of hours and would refuse to give him a blanket. He would leave feeling worse than when he arrived, he said. 

Ryan Gustin, spokesperson for CoreCivic, the private prison company that runs the detention facility, said that the company could not address specific individuals’ medical records due to privacy rules but that it is “committed to providing access to high-quality medical and mental health care for all residents.”

But from Nick’s perspective, the medical staff treated him worse than any of the company’s other employees.

“You feel that if they have the chance to make you suffer, they will do it passionately,” Nick said.

He got a bad rash on his leg, a complaint I’ve heard from multiple people detained at the facility this year due to compromised hygiene from overcrowding. 

Ana said one of the psychiatrists that she saw while she was there scolded her for speaking with me in January when ICE officials bruised her. 

She agreed with her husband’s assessment of the medical program there.

“They don’t look at you like you’re human,” she said. “That’s the problem.”

The food at the detention center was also not edible, Nick said. He said they only ate meat — a piece of chicken — once over the five weeks they were there. The rest of the time, he said, the food was “unrecognizable.”

Gustin said that claim was false. 

“Our menus consistently feature a variety of protein options standard for foodservice operations, including chicken and beef patties, turkey options, and other USDA-approved items,” Gustin said. “These meals are served regularly throughout each week.”

When the couple got out of custody, officials returned Nick’s suit to him in a crumpled heap. It was destroyed, he said. 

He — and the couple’s little dog — will soon leave for Croatia. When I visited the couple recently at the apartment they must soon vacate, it had the organized chaos of moving with piles of items, boxes and suitcases waiting to be sorted.

Ana was wearing an ankle monitor, a change from the tracking watch that she’d previously been issued.

Nick warned that the United States is not as united as it once was.

“I’m coming from a country that fell apart because of those same cracks,” he said. “I hope it doesn’t happen to you.”

Nick said though the Trump administration has claimed it’s pursuing people with criminal records, his experience shows that ICE officers are going for easier targets — people who follow the rules by showing up to hearings and appointments.

Government data obtained by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse show that nearly 74 percent of people currently in immigration custody have no criminal convictions.

“If they think they won by chasing out people like me, then God help them,” Nick said.

Thank you for reading. I’m open for tips, suggestions and feedback on Instagram @katemorrisseyjournalist and on X/Twitter and Bluesky @bgirledukate.

In Other News

Building materials: The rubble from the old Terminal 1 at the San Diego airport is going to the new Otay Mesa border crossing construction, Alexandra Mendoza reported for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Pets left behind: San Diego animal shelters are receiving pets of people whom the U.S. government has deported, Gustavo Solis reported for KPBS.

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