Orbin Mauricio Henríquez Serrano was getting gas before his cooking shift in St. Paul, Minnesota, when immigration agents arrested him. They broke his car window and took him to a private detention camp where several people have died.
According to HuffPost, the incident happened on January 11 at a Speedway gas station. Henríquez Serrano saw masked immigration agents around his car. He said they probably didn’t know who he was until they checked his license plates.
When agents came close, he refused to answer questions about his citizenship and tried to call a lawyer. He thought they wouldn’t break into his private vehicle, but he was wrong. Agents smashed his Jeep Cherokee window, got inside, and pulled him out by force.
Immigration enforcement tactics raise serious safety concerns
Henríquez Serrano said one agent hit his hand with what might have been the hammer used to break the glass. He also remembered agents calling him a curse word in Spanish while they pressed him to the ground until he passed out. A Border Patrol commander named Greg Bovino was reportedly telling bystanders and journalists to “back up!” during the struggle.
Video of Henríquez Serrano’s unconscious body being carried into an unmarked federal vehicle spread quickly online. His sister Consuelo feared he had died. When he woke up, he was in a van and saw protesters outside the Whipple Federal Building where he was held.
The next morning, Henríquez Serrano was put in shackles that stayed on his hands and feet for 11 hours. He and other detainees were taken to the airport and flown to Texas. They ended up at a tent camp called “Camp East Montana,” where multiple people have died since December, including one homicide case.
Henríquez Serrano spent over a week at the camp. “Hygiene, there is none,” he said. “If there were a pandemic in this place, everyone would die because there is no way to be isolated from others,” he explained, noting the cells had no separate ceilings.
He never spoke to a lawyer or any actual U.S. government agent, only contractors running the privately managed facility. His only clinic visit was described as “shoddy,” giving him only cream and pills, likely Tylenol. He believes he has serious tendon damage around his right knee from the arrest. He said guards “treated me roughly in the areas where I was injured” afterward.
It took two days for him to call his sister Consuelo. The call lasted only seconds, and he only told her he was “very injured.” Henríquez Serrano was later shackled again and flown back to Honduras, the country he left six years ago.
He had built a quiet life in the United States, working as a cook and assistant manager, spending time with family, and supporting the Minnesota United Football Club. His only offense was a speeding ticket.
The Trump administration said Henríquez Serrano had a 2020 deportation order, though he denied knowing about it. He tried to apply for asylum in 2019, but after being kidnapped in Mexico and his family paying $14,000 for his freedom, he crossed the border. This enforcement approach mirrors the administration’s aggressive foreign policy stance, including how Trump’s Greenland threats affected Europe.
Henríquez Serrano is glad to be out of detention but worried about his safety in Honduras. He wants Americans to know that immigrants President Trump calls criminals are actually people who “feed them, build their homes and contribute to society.”
He was encouraged by the protests against the enforcement surge, saying those Americans are “the voice that we Latinos have to suppress because of fear.” International leaders have also questioned some of Trump’s policies, with the EU chief calling his tariffs a concerning approach.
Published: Jan 27, 2026 02:45 pm