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PBS News Hour - Segments

Mother recounts weeks in immigration custody with her U.S. citizen children

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2026

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Trump administration has said its immigration crackdown targets the worst of the worst, but many people without criminal records are getting swept up and detained — some of them along with their families. Lisa Desjardins spoke with one of them. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

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0:00.0

The Trump administration has said its immigration crackdown targets the worst of the worst,

0:05.0

but many people without criminal records are getting swept up and detained, some of them along with their families.

0:11.4

Our Lisa Desjardin spoke earlier with one of them.

0:15.1

In October, Jackie Merlos was released from an ICE processing center in Tacoma, Washington,

0:20.4

after spending more than 100 days in federal custody.

0:24.4

Murlos came to the U.S. illegally in 2003 from Honduras.

0:28.4

She later gained a temporary legal status while her full visa is pending.

0:33.2

She has no criminal history.

0:35.4

Jackie was detained, along with her four children, all of whom are

0:39.1

U.S. citizens, at a park in Washington State near the Canadian border. She and her kids spent

0:44.6

14 days in detention before her children were released to a family friend. Jackie was able to

0:50.7

reunite with her family after her time in custody. Meantime, her husband Carlos, has been deported to Honduras.

0:58.0

Joining me now is Jackie Murlos and her lawyer, Sarah Khan.

1:01.8

Jackie, you were there in Peace Arch Park just back from visiting your sister who lives in Canada.

1:08.0

What did the officers who approached you say?

1:11.8

And then what happened?

1:20.1

They just approached us and took us to the detention center, saying that I was smuggling my family, something that is a false accusation and doesn't make any sense.

1:25.6

You were in a windowless detention room with your four

1:30.4

children who are elementary school age for two weeks. How do you explain that to a child?

1:36.8

They treat us not as a human beings. They treat us more than animals. And the detention center wasn't good for, to have a family there.

1:49.4

My kids started, like, having so much hungry of all the stress and trauma that they were

1:54.8

going through.

...

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