Marko Protic
BBC journalist
When Milan* loaded his truck with goods under the hot Texas sun on that September day and headed up the Gulf Coast toward the interior of the United States, he could not have imagined that his journey would end prematurely in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center.
This truck driver, originally from Serbia, became one of a number of people detained by ICE as part of the implementation of the rigorous anti-immigration policy of the presidential administration of Donald Trump.
He spent about three weeks in custody, was released on bail and ordered to wear an anklet, and told BBC Serbian that he was allowed to work again and that his next hearing is scheduled for March 2027.
He points out that he entered America legally with a visa three years ago, that he then requested asylum in 2023, and that he is awaiting a decision on that request.
"I've calmed down now."
"When you're arrested, the worst thing is that you don't know what's happening, where they're taking you, how long you're going to be locked up, whether they'll send you home," Milan tells the BBC as he waits for goods to be loaded in Philadelphia, a city in the state of Pennsylvania.
More than 65.000 people are in ICE detention centers, according to data TRAC Research Center Syracuse University from mid-November.
The BBC has contacted ICE and the US Department of Homeland Security for exact figures on the number of detainees and their nationalities.
According to US regulations, ICE had legal grounds to detain non-citizens who were in the asylum process, which has been a frequent case in recent months since the administration tightened migration policy, Miroljub Đukić, an immigration lawyer from Chicago, told BBC Serbian.
"They had the legal right to detain him, because there is a difference between legal presence and legal status."
"He does not have legal status because his asylum application has not yet been resolved, but he has legal presence and, based on that, he has a work permit," the lawyer says.
No previous presidential administration has enforced the law this rigorously, he adds.
'They separate men on one side, women on the other'
Border patrol checkpoints are not uncommon in the southern states of the US, and Milan passed through them without difficulty until the moment he was apprehended.
But on that fateful day, he saw signs along the I-69 highway.
"I was on the phone with my colleagues, I see a long line, it's moving slowly, and I can see that something is wrong here because it usually goes much faster," says Milan.
Until then, they had let him go when he told them he was not a citizen, but that he had a valid work permit.
"This time the policeman's expression changed when I told him about my documents and status and he just sent me to park the truck on the side," he adds.
In those moments, he was still optimistic, because he believed he would be released after the check, he says.
But hope began to fade when he was led into a room where he first gave his fingerprints, and then saw dozens of people waiting for further steps.
"I saw a woman with two daughters, they left them in the car, the mother was taken in... She just wanted to say goodbye to her daughters, the police brought them inside, everyone was crying."
"I also noticed a couple with a daughter, I think she was seven or eight years old."
"They separated them, the men in one room, the woman and child in another," describes Milan.
Before they took his phone away, he managed to briefly contact the owner of the Chicago company he works for, explain what happened, and ask him to hire a lawyer.
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'Sleeped like sardines'
A few hours after he was detained, Milan was transported in a van with 11 other people to a border police facility in the city of McAllen in southeast Texas.
The police did not tell them where they were going, but he points out that he recognized the route he had taken many times before in his own truck.
"It was a facility with four rooms, 10 by 10 meters, they were crowded, 50 people in each."
"There are no windows, some kind of ventilation in the ceiling, and in the middle there is a guard on a pedestal, monitoring all four rooms," Milan describes with a mixture of anger and disbelief in his voice.
Since the stricter implementation of anti-immigration policies in the US began, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been the target of accusations of poor hygiene and health conditions in detention centers.
The BBC in Serbian wrote to ICE and the Border Police, but by the time the article was published, it had not received answers about the hygiene standards in their facilities.
"We had two toilets and one sink in the room, but we slept on mats, like sardines."
"They gave us three meals a day - a sandwich, maybe an apple, and some cookies or chips."
"Nobody tells you anything, they take us out once a day to clean the room," Milan recalls.
After two days in McAllen, with several other detainees, he was transferred 82 kilometers east, to the ICE facility in Port Isabel on the Gulf Coast.
He only found out about it when he got there.
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Uniforms, tablets and barcodes
ICE has at least 11 detention centers in Texas where it detains people it claims are not in the United States, according to data from the DHS website.
ICE is responsible for managing these centers, but often contracts with private companies to take on the task.
"It didn't look like a classic prison, it looked more like a barracks - four large rooms, a surveillance room in the middle with cameras and a guard."
"There were 75 people in each room, bunk beds, a toilet and shower, and that's where you eat," says Milan.
He recalls with a smile how, like in American movies, he was given a prison wardrobe.
"They took everything I had, gave me three T-shirts, three pairs of underwear, two blouses and two pairs of pants, all blue," he describes.
He describes the detention center menu as unseasoned and tasteless, with 'fake' - vegetarian - hamburgers, "seven-day-old fries" and sachets of ketchup and mustard.
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Technological progress, however, did not bypass prisons, so they received wristbands and cards with barcodes, which guards read when distributing food and counting those present.
Hygiene conditions, however, are not advancing as quickly as technology.
"We had four showers and sinks in the room, as well as five toilets. We organized ourselves, so three toilets were for large and two for small needs," he adds.
Most of the detainees in that facility were people from South America, but there were also people from Sudan and Afghanistan.
No one from the Balkans except Milan.
"They divided us into four sectors - Alpha, Beta, Charlie and Delta."
"I was in the Delta sector, it was mostly workers and none of us caused any problems," he says.
They passed the time playing chess, dominoes, and monopoly, and occasionally they brought them a Sony PlayStation console.
They were taken out into the yard almost every day, for half an hour or 45 minutes.
“We had tablets and wall phones to communicate with the outside world.
"You could order snacks, sweets, and noodles on a tablet in their online store."
"And then I realized that this is how they make money off you," he points out.
Bail fight
Very soon after he was detained, the company Milan worked for found him a lawyer and the legal battle for his release began.
His defense attorney's tactic was to request release on bail.
"During one of the first conversations, the boss of the company told me there would be a bonus if I left in two weeks."
And so it was.
He had to go through two hearings, as the judge requested that the woman who was his guarantor provide the court with additional documents about her own tax obligations.
"It was hard for me when they returned me to the detention center after the first hearing and said that there would be a new hearing in two weeks - and I had already 'set my mind' to get out," Milan admits.
At a second hearing, the judge agreed to release him on $15.000 bail.
But the slowness of bureaucracy is not a characteristic of only some countries in Europe, as was immediately evident from the judge's decision.
"We waited 24 hours for ICE to approve, so, let's say, we paid on Friday, then we waited all weekend for the payment to go through."
"On Monday afternoon they got the green light to let me go, but since it was late, they let me go the next morning," sums up the truck driver from Serbia.
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Bukagije, pizza and a priest
After almost a month in custody, the time has come for Milan to be released.
But that act didn't go without a cinematic detail.
"They put 'bukagi' on our feet - I asked the guard: 'Why are you taking us out like this, if we haven't killed anyone'."
"The answer was that it was protocol, for our safety," he says.
Finally, a free man, he emerged after a 45-minute van ride - at a bus station in the city of Brownsville, another place near the Mexican border.
"Volunteers met us at the station to charge our phones and help us organize our flights."
"There was even a priest who brought us pizza," says Milan.
While waiting to charge his phone and eat something, he met a guy from the African country of Niger, also a truck driver who ended up in detention.
He came to the US 10 years ago and requested asylum.
"We went to Dallas together, and from there he went to North Carolina, I went to Illinois."
During his detention, Milan says that the hardest thing for him was "thinking about his family" in Serbia.
"I know they need me, we talk often and now that's gone and this moment was quite difficult for me."
"And then another thought interrupted me - I don't want to lie in prison without a real reason. Well, send me home...".
What does the Serbian consulate say?
In early October, during a crackdown on illegal immigrants in the US, in raids on highways across the US 37 truck drivers arrested who are citizens of Serbia.
Most of them were arrested on the roads of Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois, Texas and Michigan.
According to estimates by the Serbian Consulate in Chicago, "between 200 and 300 people of Serbian origin live in the states of Illinois, Indiana and Michigan," Consul Marko Nikolić told BBC Serbian.
"By the end of October, 10 Serbian citizens had contacted the consulate in Chicago."
"Two have been deported, four are awaiting deportation, and three are in criminal proceedings," he explains.
The consulate is in constant communication with regional ICE offices and inquires about the conditions and condition of detainees.
However, in accordance with international conventions, it has no right to influence the course and decisions of American authorities.
"The current situation is not pleasant for the Serbian community in Chicago and the surrounding area, especially for young, family-oriented people who came to America to make a living," Nikolić points out.
The Consulate in Chicago covers 28 states - from the Midwest to the Pacific.
Anklet and back in the truck
Milana's next appearance before Judge is scheduled for March 24, 2027.
Upon returning to Chicago, he had to report to the local ICE office, where he was fitted with an anklet (ankle tracking device) and told he could drive a truck again, but only in three states - Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
“I asked the ICE officer quite angrily how I was going to work and pay for my apartment and send money to my family if they were restricting where I could drive.
"It wasn't until I brought the contract from the company and a cover letter that they wrote in my file that I was allowed to drive in all countries," he says.
As we finish our conversation, truck engines and alarms beeping can be heard in the background, warning drivers of obstacles when parking.
The goods are ready - Milan can set off on a new round of driving.
But not without a dose of trepidation.
"Since I started driving again, no one has stopped me, and I hope they won't."
"Still, nothing can surprise me," he concludes.
*The interviewee's name has been changed at his request.
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