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Sebastian R.: 26-year-old Mexican student chained hand and foot on ICE flight

Sebastian R., 26, who had lived and studied in New York for six years, says he was chained hand and foot on his first-ever flight and could not reach his brother for a week after arriving.

September 2025New York, NYCountry of origin: Mexico

Sebastian R.: 26-year-old Mexican student chained hand and foot on ICE flight
Photo via Human Rights Watch

Sebastian R., a 26-year-old man from Oaxaca, Mexico, who had lived and studied in New York for six years, was detained by ICE in September 2025 and flown to Camp East Montana. 'I cried the entire time because I always dreamed that I would travel on a plane,' he said. 'I was handcuffed, hands and feet, with chains around my waist. The cuffs were so tight they left marks on my body. I couldn't move and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I felt like I was being kidnapped. My brother had no idea where I was. I could not call him until a week after I got to El Paso.'

“I sometimes look at my bed sheets, and I wonder if it would be easier to hang myself instead of trying to survive this torture. I don’t know how to describe what I’m feeling. I feel forgotten. People have died here and no one cares. I’ve gone a month without seeing the sun.... I am forced to live in filth.... I have been taken from my family, from my home, and I know that no matter how long they keep me here, they will end up deporting me. I'm so afraid I will get killed once I am sent back. That is why I left. I can’t sleep most nights, that’s when I have the hardest time.”
— Ismael M., 28, from Honduras
“When I first got here the guards told me, “When you get to El Paso, Texas, there’s no going back. You’re only getting out deported or dead.””
— Javier C.
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