ICE detains refugees fleeing Russia forcing them to leave again

They left Russia in a panic and now they face a dilemma as Immigration and Customs Enforcement detain Sergei.

Sergei and Marina, Russian nationals who were seeking asylum in the United States after Marina, who was pregnant at the time, was arrested and fined for speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

As per a report in MSN, Now they are facing a dilemma as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Segei after calling him to their San Francisco office for seemingly routine administrative work.

He was then deprived of his claim to asylum and transferred to a detention centre 400km from his family and faces the risk of being deported to Russia, which has fiercely cracked down on anti war protestors.

In light of this, the couple is asking the US government to let them willingly leave the USA and settle elsewhere.

“It’s kind of crazy, because we have to start life from point zero once again,” Marina said. “But it’s much better than being separated, or worse.”

When the couple departed Russia, they did so in a panic, leaving behind a life of stability. Sergei had been gaining a good reputation among the automotive community, working with auto bloggers and influencers to build tricked-out, bespoke cars. Marina worked as a photographer for stock photo agencies and was also gaining a sizeable following on her blog where she documented her adventures in keeping and breeding pet frogs.

When the invasion of Ukraine began, Marina decided to leverage some of her social media influence to advocate against the war. Unfortunately, due to the enactment of various censorship laws, Marina was apprehended for holding flyers with anti war messages.

Shortly after that, Marina found out that she was pregnant. “It was so crazy – I was 34 and this was my first pregnancy. I had really wanted to have babies,” she said. This revelation along with the threat of jail time if arrested again for similar actions to the ones that led to her prior arrest made the couple decide to flee the country. 

They took the decision to fly to Mexico and landed in Reynosa, from there they secured an appointment for an interview with immigration officials, and later registered their application for asylum. 

A few months later, Sergei and Marina moved to California with their newborn daughter because they had friends in the state. Afterwards, Sergei was able to acquire employment at an Auto Shop and Marina was able to redevelop her photography business, moving to family portraits. “California really became home for us,” Marina stated. 

Unfortunately, Sergei’s recent detention has abruptly halted the couple’s plans to rebuild their lives in the US. The ICE has also summoned Marina as well but she is afraid that she will also be arrested. She also worries that if she is arrested, she might lose custody of her daughter, who is a US citizen by birth, which will end up causing their daughter to be put in a foster home, splitting the family apart.

Their choice to ask Sergei’s lawyer to petition the court to release Sergei so that they can willingly leave America and move to Serbia stems from the fact that this is their best chance of remaining together, as a family.

They are not the only ones facing such circumstances. According to data from Homeland Security (DHS) more than 8,300 Russian nationals have applied for asylum in the US since Russia invaded Ukraine.

This data was aggregated by the Transactional Records Clearinghouse (Trac), a group that tracks immigration data. Trac data also shows that approximately 85% of Russians who applied were granted asylum.

Despite this, many asylum seekers from Russia and other post soviet countries have been detained by ICE since mid 2024 while their cases were still in progress.