ICE Detained a Trump Voter's Russian Wife at a California Airport — He's No Longer a Supporter
ICE agents detained Russian citizen Galina Bobreneva at a California airport while she was awaiting a green card through marriage to a U.S. citizen. Her husband, who voted for Trump three times, has since turned against the president.
In mid-July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers detained Russian citizen Galina Bobreneva in California. According to her lawyer, she had been in the country legally since arriving in late 2021 and was awaiting a green card based on her marriage to a U.S. citizen. ICE nonetheless sent her to a detention facility, where she spent more than two weeks.
Bobreneva entered the U.S. on a tourist visa, applied for asylum after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and extended her visa twice. In March 2025 she met Brent Jindra, a salesman and staunch Trump supporter who had voted for the president three times and praised his hard-line immigration stance. The couple married in December, and four months later Jindra filed to sponsor his wife for a marriage-based green card.
In mid-July, while flying from San Francisco to Burbank, the couple was stopped by plainclothes ICE officers who cited a secondary screening. After about 15 minutes of questioning, despite Bobreneva presenting paperwork showing her green-card application was in process, officers handcuffed her and took her away. The Department of Homeland Security later said she had broken the law, noting that a pending application does not confer legal status. Federal law permits such detentions, though the Times noted previous administrations did not treat such applicants as unlawfully present.
Bobreneva said she was held in a cold room with other detainees, including an elderly woman with diabetes who was denied insulin. About 18 hours later she was shackled and transferred to the Adelanto detention center, where 120 people shared seven showers, only four of which worked, drinking water was scarce, and medical care was withheld until conditions became severe. ICE did not comment on her account; the department denied the claims of poor conditions.
Jindra visited his wife three times a week and helped secure her release on July 29 on a $35,000 bond with an electronic ankle monitor. Her first hearing is set for October 22. Jindra, who once identified as a MAGA supporter, said his backing of Trump ended after the detention, arguing there was never a mandate to target people who entered the country legally.
