A man who describes himself as a supporter of Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement says he is now “living in fear” after his wife was detained by US immigration authorities. Brent Jindra, a 48-year-old technology salesman who says he voted for Trump three times, told The New York Times that his wife, Galina Bobreneva, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at an airport in Burbank, California, on 13 July.

“She did not jump a wall, she did not swim a river,” Jindra said. “She came in Trump’s beautiful, big front door.” The couple had travelled from San Francisco when, according to their account, an ICE agent in plain clothes stopped Bobreneva. “Congratulations, you’ve been chosen for secondary screening,” the agent told her, according to the couple.

About 15 minutes later, Bobreneva was handcuffed and taken in an unmarked vehicle to a holding facility in downtown Los Angeles. Bobreneva, 40, is a Russian national who arrived in the US in 2021. She extended her visa twice after the start of the war in Ukraine and applied for asylum in 2022. She also has a pending green card application.

Her lawyer told The New York Times that Bobreneva had always maintained lawful status.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, described her as “an illegal alien” and said she was detained 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.

Jindra said he had supported Trump’s immigration policies because he wanted to see action against people he believed had entered the country illegally. But he said he never expected the administration’s policies to affect people who had entered the US legally. “A US citizen just watched his wife get dragged away and had no idea where she’s going,” he said.

Bobreneva spent 16 days in detention, including a night on the floor of a basement holding cell in downtown Los Angeles, before spending about two weeks at an immigration detention centre in Adelanto, California.

She was eventually released on a $35,000 bond and ordered to wear an electronic monitor.

Bobreneva described conditions at the detention centre as “horrid”. “I felt like a piece of meat, not like a human,” she said.

She said she was deprived of sleep because lights were never turned off and radios worn by guards produced constant noise.

She also claimed that only four showers were working for about 120 women, that safe drinking water was difficult to obtain and that healthcare was denied.

She recalled a pregnant woman with diabetes pleading for insulin.

DHS rejected claims that conditions at the Adelanto facility were inadequate. “Any claim that there are substandard conditions at the Adelanto ICE processing facility is FALSE,” a DHS spokesperson told The New York Times. “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 7 September. Her first court appearance is scheduled for 22 October.

For now, Jindra said: “We are living in fear in my own country.” Earlier allegations over Adelanto The case comes amid separate allegations about conditions at the Adelanto Immigration Detention Center.

Earlier this month, the family of Carlitos Ricardo Parias, 44, released a video that they said showed worm-like creatures in a bottle of drinking water provided to detainees at the facility.

Parias remains in federal custody pending deportation to Mexico.

The video emerged weeks after a federal judge ordered ICE to provide detainees at the facility with “clean, potable drinking water” within 24 hours.

The order followed a class-action lawsuit alleging “dangerous conditions” at the centre, including insufficient food, clean drinking water and adequate medical care, according to The Guardian.