“I ran away from one gulag just to finish in another”: Russian asylum seekers face ice custody in the US | American immigration star-news.press/wp

FOr most four years Joe Biden was in office, the citizens of Russia and other post-Soviet Asylum states in the United States were mainly released into the country while hearing their request in the Immigration Court.

But since last summer, many are detained after entering the United States, and some of them were held for more than a year, lawyers, activists and detainees. Some children are separated from their parents.

“My Russian clients tell me:” Now our prison is 80% Russian, the remaining nationality that remain for the rights of the detainees, together with the representatives of the Russian opposition. “Only the Russians and several other post-soviet citizens remain in custody to their final hearings.”

Alexei Demin, 62-year-old former Navy officer from Moscow, was detained in July last year.

In the last 20 years, Demin rarely missed anti-Vladimir Putin protest in Russian capital. He was worried almost immediately after Putin, a former KGB agent, he rose to power, he said. For years, he criticized Putin’s Facebook regime, and he was closed twice in protests. Still, he never imagined that he would end up on escape from his homeland for fear that Putin’s regime would close him. Or to end closed in the US.

When Russia has launched its invasion of Ukraine 2022. year, the colleague asked the demin why did not appear. He replied, “If I leave, he will be on the side of Ukraine.” Soon, how to reinforce the rejection in Russia, he intensified the condition of the war, Demin and his wife, as well as many others who have long since opposed Putin, fled to the United States to seek political asylum. The Russians were among the tops for years five The nationalities are approved asylum.

The couple arrived in the United States in the summer 2024. year, after the provision of a meeting via the CBP, an application launched by the Biden Administration (and has since excluded Donald Trump) to meet the applicants for asylum with immigrant officials. At their meeting, Demin and his wife were detained, separated and sent to detention centers in different countries. They haven’t seen each other since.

His transmission, Demin said, was a “trap and muddy injustice.”

“This is how it treated Russian politics in January in January in January,” he said in the invitation at the Detention Center in Virginia.

American immigration and customs application (ICE) do not release public data on the number of people from post-sovial countries in custody. But Nikolaev said that the law enforcement officers have privately admitted that the asylum seekers from those countries would be longer.

Other activists say they have seen similar patterns. Non-profit Russian Americas for democracy in Russia (Radr) played an active role in helping detainees in detention centers for immigration, finding a lawyer and working with government officials.

Dmitry Valuev, President Radrand, said that it is a matter that affects the Russians not only Russians, but also citizens several other post-sovial countries.

It was Reports That some immigrants coming from post-Soviet states are facing increased supervision due to fear associated with Islamist terrorist organizations. It is unclear what encouraged the American authorities to hold Russian asylum seekers in custody. One theory is that immigration officials target Russians and other post-soviet nationalities as spies.

Eric Rubin, a former American ambassador in Bulgaria, served as Deputy Head of the Mission in the US Embassy in Moscow, said the complicated history of US diplomacy may harm Russia’s asylum applicants.

“When you meet the Russians in the United States, you obviously need to wonder if some of them actually work for Russian intelligence. Some of them are, most of them are not,” Rubin said.

Nikolaev is not so sure. “Russian spies can enter the country with European passports, visas and all the right documents,” she said.

In January, Nikolaev took concern about U.S. government officials, along with Ilya Yashin, a leading Russian opposition figure. They met officials in the National Security Council, who requested a list of separate families, said Nikolaev.

The Homeland Security Department, LED and the National Security Council did not respond to repeated questions about detention policy or special cases referred to in this article.

In the statement, the White House said that the duration of cases varies on the basis of legal proceedings and any requested protection. The White House also said that there were “zero cases of children from any country you mentioned that they have been separated from their US Immigration Authorities in this entire fiscal year.”

But Galina Kaplanova, 26, Illustrator and Anti-Putin activist, were detained and separated from his child and his mother on the American border last August.

In the summer 2024. year, Kaplan’s husband, the Kremlin fan, threatened to report her child and report to the police for her political activism, said Kaplanov. Gender from St. Petersburg, he was detained several times in protests and voluntarily appeared in the offices for the Opposition Leaders campaign. Two days after her husband threats made, Kaplan, a four-year-old son and her mother ran away in the United States.

On the American border with Mexico, Ice Agents separated the caplants from his son, she said. He was placed in his foster care, while her mother were sent to various detention centers in separate states.

After separating, her son was placed with a Mexican American family, she said. He didn’t speak English, so he communicated with them through Google Translate.

“I ran away Russia to avoid taking my child or prison. But now they worked,” she said.

About two months after being detained and separated, Kaplan was released and reunited with her son, she said. There was a miracle, she said.

Now the caplun and her son now live in California. Her mother is still detained. Her son is afraid of abandonment. Whenever he tries to talk about his time in his foster care, he just says he doesn’t remember him.

“It’s like he deleted that part of his life, so he didn’t have to remember,” she said.

He learned some English in foster care, but refuses to say that with his mother.

“Maybe he connects English with something bad, something negatively,” she said.

Value, President Radar, said that long periods of custody can harm the applicant asylum cases. Hiring a lawyer from the detention center is almost impossible for the lack of the Internet, he said. “Detainees are given a list of contacts, but most of these numbers do not answer the phone,” he said.

In addition, many detainees do not have access to materials for their asylum cases because their documents were stored on computers and phones that have seized.

Vladislav Krasnov, protest organizer and activist from Moscow, said he spent 444 days at the Louisian’s Detention Center. Krasnov escaped in Russia in 2022. years after Putin announced the draft. He crossed the border with the CBP one meeting and was quick closed. Now for free, he still waits for the hearing for the Court to review his asylum case.

Thinking about his experience, he said he was a shocked welcome he received in the United States. “I ran away from one gulag just to finish in the second,” Krasnov said.

He was also angry with Russian opposition leaders because of not recently paying attention to his condition.

“Last summer, I watched Yulia Navalnaya hugs in an oval office. Then Harris said that America was struggling, I had a complete breakdown, sitting in custody,” Krasnov said.

About 300 detainees from Russia and other post-sovial countries have applied last November, calling their discrimination custody and demanding freedom for people who claim to be held without justification. The Federal Judge ruled in February that the Court lacked the competencies to review the detention policy and rejected the case.

Among those who mentioned in the lawsuit were a polynone of gution, political activist and volunteering in the Team of late Russian dissident Aleksei Navalny. The Guseva arrived in the US in July 2024. year, she applied for asylum and sent to custody. She said Ice officers in Louisiana custody in which she was held “openly says that the Russians are not released.”

However, she does not regret that he comes to the United States, she said, adding concern for safety in Russia left without the other choice.

“Two thoughts help me a lot. First, you better be here than being raped with a dumbbell in Russian prison,” Cheševa said. “And second, my friend Daniil Kholodny is still in Jail in Russia. He was a technical director of the Navalny Live YouTube channel. At the beginning of the last trial. Now he was closed for more than two years. If he can be held, why not?”

Alexei Demin, a former Navy Officer and a long-term protester, should have had his first hearing about the asylum, reviewing his asylum case in early February, but the hearing was relocated to the middle of April for the judge. Until then, he will be in custody for more than 300 days.