‘Living in fear in my own country’: Man says he voted for Trump three times and considers himself a MAGA loyalist. Then he saw ICE detain his wife

A man who says he supported Donald Trump’s immigration policies is now speaking out after his wife was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Brent Jindra, 48, told The New York Times that he saw himself as a MAGA supporter until his wife, Galina Bobreneva, 40, was taken into custody by ICE at an airport in Burbank, California, on July 13.

Jindra works as a tech salesman and said he voted for Trump in three elections, partly because of the president’s stance on immigration.

Wife detained during trip from San Francisco

Jindra and Bobreneva were flying out of San Francisco in July. Jindra was headed to meet clients, and Bobreneva was planning to meet friends. That’s when an ICE agent in plain clothes approached them.

According to the couple, the agent told Bobreneva, “Congratulations, you’ve been chosen for secondary screening.” About 15 minutes later, she was handcuffed and taken away in an unmarked vehicle to a holding cell in downtown Los Angeles.

Bobreneva is a Russian national who came to the United States in 2021. She extended her visa twice after the war in Ukraine began. She applied for asylum in 2022 and has a green card application that is still pending. Her lawyer told the Times that she has always held lawful status in the country. Jindra defended his wife’s entry into the country, saying, “She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river. She came in Trump’s beautiful, big front door.”

The Department of Homeland Security gave a different account. In a statement to the Times, the agency called Bobreneva “an illegal alien” and said she was targeted because “she overstayed her welcome in violation of our nation’s laws.” DHS also said, “To be clear, work authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States.”

Jindra said he had supported the MAGA movement to push back against illegal entry by criminals, but he said he never thought the president’s policies would affect someone who entered the country legally. He told the Times, “A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she’s going.”

Bobreneva was held for 16 days total. She spent one night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles, then was moved to a detention center in Adelanto for two weeks. She was eventually released after posting a $35,000 bond and was ordered to wear an electronic monitor. 

Bobreneva described her time in detention, saying, “I felt like a piece of meat, not like a human.” She said the lights in the facility were never turned off, and radios worn by guards created constant noise, which kept her from sleeping. She also said that out of the facility’s showers, only four were working for around 120 women, and that safe drinking water was hard to come by. 

Bobreneva added that health care was denied to detainees, including a pregnant woman with diabetes who asked for insulin and did not receive it. Other ICE cases have also drawn scrutiny, including one where a US-born woman was shackled and detained despite her citizenship.

DHS pushed back on these claims. A spokesperson told the Times, “Any claim that there are substandard conditions at the Adelanto ICE processing facility is FALSE,” adding, “All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers.”

Bobreneva must report to ICE in San Francisco on September 7, and her first court appearance is set for October 22. Jindra said of the couple’s situation, “We are living in fear in my own country.” Other recent enforcement stops have also been captured on camera, including a widely shared video showing a Texas detention that led to a confrontation with the person filming it.

This is not the first report of alleged poor conditions at the Adelanto facility. Earlier this month, the family of another detainee, Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, shared a video that appeared to show worm-like creatures in a bottle of drinking water given to detainees. Parias is still in federal custody and is awaiting deportation to Mexico.

That video came out just weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to give detainees at the facility “clean, potable drinking water” within 24 hours, according to the Guardian. The order followed a class-action lawsuit accusing the facility of forcing detainees to live in “dangerous conditions,” including claims of insufficient food, unclean drinking water, and inadequate medical care, the outlet reported.