humsi_org In a shelter in Tapachula, we spoke with Jorge (pseudonym), who fled death threats in Guatemala because gangs demanded extortion payments he couldn’t afford. He made it to family in San Diego and worked construction for five months until ICE raided his worksite and arrested him mid-shift. He spent three months in detention, much of it in freezing holding cells meant for short stays. He slept on bare concrete with only a foil sheet. “When you asked an officer to adjust the temperature, they made it colder so you would suffer.” Fluorescent lights stayed on 24/7. Showers were 2x/week only at 2 a.m. “It’s hard to sleep. For us it’s like being in hell.” When he complained, staff told him: “You have no right to ask for privileges. You’re here for being illegal.” He said: “They treat us like dogs.”The cold gave him bronchitis. He was gravely ill for two weeks; staff gave him fever pills and refused hospital care. He called a posted rights hotline to report the conditions. The call was cut off twice. “They monitor everything you say.” He signed deportation papers he couldn’t read because they were in English. “They threatened that if I didn’t sign, they’d keep me detained for two or three years in federal prison. Better to just sign.” He later learned it carried a 10-year bar. On the deportation flight he was shackled at wrists, waist, and ankles. Then, twenty minutes before landing in Guatemala, “they remove all the chains. They comb your hair. They spray you with water, make you look nice. So when you step off the plane, the press doesn’t see the chains.” After landing in Guatemala, Jorge quickly rode buses back toward Mexico, afraid of the gangs he’d fled. He can’t sleep. He’s lost interest in drawing, the hobby he loved. Telling us his story, he stopped: “It forms right here, see? A knot in my throat. You feel the tears about to come out.” But he kept going: “Someone who has never lived this cannot understand how they treat people. But it’s an experience I lived, and I’ll live it for the rest of my life. I want to tell the reality I lived inside that hell, so the world will know.”