At a community religious event, Alexander Esquivel, an undocumented migrant, recounts his experience being detained by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

Late last year, he was eating breakfast in his car outside his Washington, D.C.

apartment before leaving for work, when he was suddenly approached by an ICE agent.

And he said, why did you enter the border?

I repeated that question over and over again.

I felt a lot of emotions.

What will happen if I get deported?

I'm going to lose my family, my friends, everything we've built.

I'm gonna lose everything in a blink of an eye.

For nothing.

Because I wasn't a criminal.

I'm not a criminal!

Alex did not have a criminal record, and neither did more than 80% of the immigrants arrested in DC during the surge in federal law enforcement last year.

Alex migrated from El Salvador to the US almost 20 years ago.

Then they exposed us as animals to the waist, the feet, the waist and the arms.

When he got detained, Alex was first brought to Chantilly Detention Center in Northern Virginia, then transferred to Southwest Virginia Regional Jail, six hours away from D.C.

He was ultimately moved to Farmville Detention center near Richmond, Virginia, where he was given a yellow uniform indicating his lack of a criminal record.

He told me many of those detained in Farmville were in the country legally or were in process of obtaining legal immigration status.

When ICE agents arrested him, he didn't care about anything.

He said, oh, a TPS is not a legal status.

A work permit is not legal.

They arrested him without justification and without any reason.

Only because of his skin color and his Hispanic traits.

Alex said he was held in poor conditions.

They gave us, it wasn't fresh food that they gave us.

On two occasions, we heard that there were worms in the food.

All the people in there are very sick.

They get sick from cough, flu, from many things.

There are no professional doctors.

It's a truly inhuman treatment.

I reached out to Department of Homeland Security for comment on these allegations and received no response.

While Alex was detained, his wife Dolores experienced intense fear, anxiety, and depression, as well as their daughter Kaylee Esquivel, who was a U.S.

Citizen.

After that, I had to start driving and go to work because I had a lot of work to do in my life.

But I told him, sir, how can I continue my life without my husband?

And I came to my house and cried a lot because it wasn't the life I wanted.

Living with fear is not life.

I would cry every single night because I feel like I had this bond with my dad that I didn't really have with anyone else.

During the detention, the family received lots of support from their community, who raised over $25,000 to help with their legal fees.

And every day outside, there was a lot of food, and I would tell him, Sir, I don't want money, I want nothing, I just want my husband.

In November, after two months in detention, Alex was released on bail.

The immigration judge cited his strong family ties and lack of a criminal record.

It was a satisfaction, a joy, because there is nothing better than being with your husband, my husband with his daughters, with his parents.

That is the true value of life, family.

Despite Alex's release, his family still suffers from trauma and avoids leaving the house out of fear.

Today in the morning I slept at 3 am and I wake up at 5 am.

I wake with that trauma, thinking that I'm still in prison.

I'm always scared, you know, because even if the police stop us, then you know they could like call ICE agents.

Alex has his final court hearing in April, where he could either receive a 10-year legal status or be deported.

Despite his judicial release, he fears he could still be detained before then.

Nonetheless, Alex got very lucky.

In September of 2025, only 3% of immigrants in detention were released on bond or under parole or supervision.

I asked Alex what he'd tell other families going through a detention.

I would tell them not to lose their faith, to fight until the very end, to fight till the very last moment, to not give up.

Because without fighting, there is no victory.

For PBS News Student Reporting Labs, I'm Santiago Campos in Washington, D.C.