‘I’m going to ask for my deportation, I can’t stand being here one more day’: The life of a group of migrants in a Texas detention center cell

Juan Manuel Fernández-Ramos is convinced that, after 72 hours, everything that a prisoner says is a lie. An inmate told him he had five motorcycles in Mexico, and he replied that he had 10 in Cuba. Another prisoner told him he had thousands of dollars in savings for when he got out, and he retorted that he himself was hoarding millions. “We all know it’s a lie, but what are we going to talk about after five months here together?” Of his eight fellow inmates in cell A1, he is the one who has spent the longest time at the IAH Polk Adult Detention Facility in Livingston, Texas, where Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crackdown has sent many foreigners now awaiting possible deportation. There are days when Alejandro García, who sleeps on the next bed, turns to ask him what he thinks of immigration officers, if he thinks there’s a chance for them. “But I already told him not to ask me any more questions. Every time he does, I tell him a hundred lies. I’m not immigration, and I’m not ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”

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Text editing:

Paola Nagovitch and Nicholas Dale

Visual editing:

Gladys Serrano

Audio editing:

Paulina Estrada

Design & layout:

Mónica Juárez Martín and Ángel Hernández