A man who once proudly described himself as a committed MAGA supporter says his world has been upended after his wife was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Brent Jindra told The New York Times he had long viewed himself as a MAGA patriot, but that changed after his wife, 40-year-old Galina Bobreneva, was taken into ICE custody at an airport in Burbank, California, on July 13.
‘She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river,’ Jindra said of his wife. ‘She came in Trump’s beautiful, big front door.’
Jindra, a 48-year-old technology salesman, said he voted for Donald Trump in three elections and had been especially supportive of the president’s hardline immigration agenda.
The couple had traveled from San Francisco in July, with Jindra scheduled to meet clients and Bobreneva planning to see friends, when a plainclothes ICE agent approached them.
‘Congratulations, you’ve been chosen for secondary screening,’ the agent told Bobreneva, according to the couple’s account.
Roughly 15 minutes later, Bobreneva was placed in handcuffs and driven away in an unmarked vehicle to a holding facility in downtown Los Angeles.
Bobreneva, a Russian citizen, entered the United States in 2021 and later extended her visa twice following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. She filed for asylum in 2022 and also has a green card application pending. Her attorney told the Times that she has remained in lawful status throughout the process.
Brent Jindra, 48, told The New York Times that he aligned with the MAGA movement until his wife, Galina Bobreneva, 40, was detained by ICE
Jindra, a 48-year-old tech salesman, voted for Trump three times and was drawn by the president’s immigration policies, until they were applied against his wife
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement to the outlet 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 authorization or a pending application do NOT confer legal status in the United States,’ the agency added.
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.
‘Congratulations, you’ve been chosen for secondary screening,’ said an ICE agent to Bobreneva, according to the couple
Jindra said that he never expected the President Donald Trump’s agenda to turn on people who entered the US legally
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.
