""We were in waiting mode," a Honduran immigrant based in St. Louis told me as she described her time being held in a county jail in Missouri. In June 2025, the woman - who asked to be identified by pseudonym "Mary" to avoid targeting - was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a gas station in St. Louis."
"Mary and her husband Jose (also identified here by a pseudonym) are both from Honduras. Their family is mixed-status: They have two children, one born in Honduras, the other born in the United States. During the first months of Donald Trump's second administration, immigration sweeps in their working-class neighborhood of St. Louis created a flurry of panic and upended their lives. Just two weeks before Mary was arrested, Jose was picked up by ICE."
""I was taken to the same jail where he was in, but they didn't allow me to see him," Mary recalls. "It was very sad not knowing anything about him because he only had me." Three days later, Jose was transferred out of the jail. For six weeks, Mary did not hear from her husband. Nobody in their family could find him. He had disappeared into Trump's deportation machine. There was more waiting."
Immigrant detention totals across the United States are substantially undercounted because many immigrants are detained in county jails rather than federal facilities. A Honduran couple, Mary and Jose, experienced ICE arrests in St. Louis during early months of Donald Trump's second administration and were held in a Phelps County jail an hour and a half from the city. Their mixed-status family endured panic and prolonged separation. Mary was not allowed to see her husband and did not locate him for six weeks after he was transferred. Family members could not find him as he disappeared into deportation processes. Local groups later helped reunite them.
Read at Truthout
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