"I felt like I had lost my mom and dad, that I was never going to leave the place. I wanted to die."

“I hardly told anyone that I was leaving Nicaragua.

It was school day and I didn't say goodbye.

We left my mom, my dad and I.

We said goodbye to my family and my two little brothers.

Along the way, Mexico is a difficult part because there are certain dangers that are faced: migration can stop you and you will be returned to your country.

There are many cartels and they can kidnap you, many things that can happen, but God, above all things, has brought us to the United States.

The worst thing in Mexico was the trailer.

When riding is normal, nothing happens, but when we were inside, it was a very bad moment, very uncomfortable.

It's awful.

[The case of Ángel: separated, imprisoned and isolated]

When we got to the border, we were with other people.

I felt that my dream, or our dream, was about to come true.

We were only a few steps from crossing the river.

It was dry.

When we already crossed [to Texas], there yes, I already felt at home, in my new home.

Cheerful.

The sun rises on the border between Piedras Negras, Coahuila, and Eagle Pass, Texas.

Damià Bonmatí

But then there came a time when neither my parents nor I explained what happened, because until then everything was going well.

Suddenly, a sandstorm came over and crushed us.

Like another kid who was there, I carried my document, my birth certificate, and the agent told me: 'No, this document is false.'

They started telling me 'tell us your real age'.

I was not going to say that I am 18 years old, because I am not that age.

I'm 16.

Neither my parents nor I explained what happened.

Suddenly a sandstorm came and crushed us "

Angel

But they were already fed up, they got mad at me and told me that they were going to take me and my family in prison for ten years.

These words I remember him saying to me: 'You and your family are the only thing they are going to know about the United States.'

That was what he told me: '10 years in jail and then we are going to deport you to your country. '

"A sandstorm came and crushed us," says the 16-year-old minor, recalling the moment he was separated from his parents at the border. Damià Bonmatí

Separated at the border

At that time he had no one to turn to.

Because they left my mother on one side, a few meters away;

to my dad on the other side, and me alone.

Alone, with the two Border Patrol officers with me there, pulling me.

What was I going to defend myself with?

And when they tell me that they were going to jail us, you can imagine what I thought.

I accepted that I was 18 years old out of fear, because of intimidation.

I accepted that I was 18 for bullying.

I signed out of fear.

I didn't want to go to jail "

That agent was terrible, it was intimidation.

He had no character to fix things, but super angry, wanting to hit me, let's say.

I was terrified.

Suddenly I wanted to leave this country.

I signed out of fear.

He didn't want to go to jail.

Although I told him I was 16 years old, it was my word against theirs.

I am a simple immigrant in this country and they were doing their job and, well, I have no rights here.

The Border Patrol must process parents and children together.

The agency said it collects biometric data, biographical data and official documents to determine the age and family relationships of the migrants.Suzanne Cordeiro / AFP via Getty Images

From there

In the Border Patrol, I went into a very small room where we were about 80 people.

He couldn't sleep or bent over, he had to stand tight, it was very uncomfortable.

Maybe I understand the issue because we are all emigrating.

But still, I have always been with my parents since I was little, I have had the affection of them and I have never separated.

[Podcast 296+ Days: The Story of an Isolated Immigrant in an ICE Prison]

They called us around 12 in the morning, calling on the list, so-and-so.

Then I came out.

And they told us we were just going to get our bags.

For a moment I was glad: I thought it was going to come out, but I didn't know what to expect.

Everything was silent and quiet.

Heading to Prisons for Adults

They brought us a lot of chains and put them on our hands, feet and with a chain tied around our waists.

And then they put us on a bus to catch a plane.

Another migrant who was there asked an officer what was happening with us, why we were like this, and they told him that they were going to transfer us to Louisiana.

There I saw my dad again.

I was with him on the plane.

It was a joy.

When I arrived I saw a lot of mesh and fencing, with wires and many wires.

This is a prison for criminals "

They got us off the plane and got on the bus for Mississippi.

I was terrified when I arrived at the Adams Detention Center.

There I say to my dad: 'what a lot, where are we going?'

As he entered the place, what he saw was a pile of mesh, fenced off, with wires and many wires.

'This is a jail for criminals,' I said.

We are going to jail.

I was not going to an arrest, I was going to prison.

I mean, super security.

But when we got inside, they took off our handcuffs, gave us a uniform and took us to a room to sleep.

There were 140 beds in a single room.

It was big.

Well, it wasn't so much the confinement.

I was happy because my dad and I had been left in the same place.

At least I had my father's warmth there.

We went to sleep, each one to his bed, because at bedtime, at ten o'clock, no one can be awake.

But the next morning I get up, I look to see my dad, where my dad is, and one of the same migrants tells me:

I went into shock.

They took him.

They took all his small suitcase of clothes.

And again alone and it was no longer in the same place, but in another state of this different country.

I was terrified of feeling alone, in another state, in another country.

No mom and no dad.

The fellow detainees told me: 'What injustice'.

And yes, because they saw my height, my appearance, that I cannot be 18 years old.

"ICE has encountered cases of minors who were initially processed as adults, instances like these are exceptional," a spokeswoman asked about the case told Noticias Telemundo Investiga.Robert Daemmrich / Corbis via Getty Images

After 27 days of being there, I was happy because I was going to move to Louisiana.

You hear rumors.

According to the migrants who were there, when they took you to Louisiana, it was just signing some paper and your departure.

Thought.

Well I was glad.

I was with some colleagues who went from Mississippi to Louisiana, in a cell, there it was smaller and closed, we were 14 people.

Suddenly they will say my name.

I didn't understand him because they speak English, but I know my name.

I tell them: 'yes, it's me'.

I packed up my things and was happy because I said: 'I'm going out.'

[The number of immigrants detained by ICE who test positive for COVID-19 increases]

They take me to a medicine room and take an X-ray of my arm.

I did not understand why.

And then they take me to a super small room, which is for people who are COVID positive or are undisciplined.

And someone who works there makes a sign to me, but I didn't want to go in because it was a place that, just seeing it, I cried.

I swear.

I was no longer me if I wanted to, but I had to be there.

An isolation cell at an ICE detention center in Texas DHS Office of the Inspector General

It was terrifying because I wanted to say to him: 'Why are they bringing me here?

what happened here?

What did I do to be brought here? '

I wanted to tell them, but it was impossible because my language is not theirs.

I just had to signal that I wanted a call.

I called my grandmother in Nicaragua and said: 'that's how things are.

. '

And me crying because I didn't want to be there.

At that, an ICE officer arrived with an interpreter so they could speak.

He told me it was because someone had claimed that I was a juvenile and that was why I was there.

The family's attorney sent ICE letters from the teacher in Nicaragua, recent high school photos, and the birth certificate.

But nothing changed until they received the national identity card.Mark Hentges

In an isolation cell

The cell is a bedroom, because it has a bed more or less so that you can fully reach your body to rest.

The bed, the toilet and the bathroom to shower inside.

Super small, almost all three together.

There was nothing to do and

.

There was no hope of getting out of that place.

My family was gathering evidence to clarify my age, and they refused to believe.

That's where I completely lost hope.

I felt that I lost my mom, my dad, brothers, friends.

Everything.

[This is how they kidnap migrants: mass arrests, raped women and shot to death if they don't pay]

I had to resign myself to the fact that I had already lost them.

I said to myself: I have already become a prisoner of these people.

They had gathered the necessary evidence [to prove age], and even from the school where I was studying in Nicaragua.

What more evidence could he gather?

What else could I do?

And if they didn't want to believe that, what were they going to believe?

When I got up, I would take off the blanket and look at that closed door.

I was getting a depression that my body, my heart, my whole trembled, it did not go away.

I couldn't even cry anymore, but my anguish was the same.

.

I was getting a depression that my body was shaking all over.

It didn't go away.

I couldn't even cry anymore "

I had a Bible, I collected many Bible verses that gave me encouragement.

He never left the cell.

Until I complained, because I was already seeing that my psychology was no longer good.

In the last few days, I went out to the patio four times.

They took me out for half an hour alone.

I had to throw the ball and go out for it.

Until one day, I was wrapped with a blanket, because I did not like to see the place, and a worker arrived.

And he beckons me, because he doesn't speak Spanish.

I did not understand anything, but I heard the word

.

I knew that when they go to

is that you are going to remove your belongings.

I prayed to the Lord that all was well.

They took me to my backpack, my clothes.

'I'm going to get out of this place,' I thought.

I was glad.

They told me to take off my uniform and put my clothes on.

It was a unique moment.

Could you check my age already?

They told me: 'Yes, we verified that he is 16 years old "

I asked why, what has changed, why are they going to take me out.

And he told me 'We have verified that you are a juvenile, that is, a minor'.

Could you check my age already?

'Yes, exactly, we verified that he is 16 years old.'

I found out later that I was going to the children's shelter and, two weeks later, I was able to meet my parents again.

After so long,