A Russian family who complained of mistreatment at an ICE facility is being released after 4 months

Oksana said she is looking forward to being able to turn off the lights at night – to cry alone with her family and begin to heal from what they endured while incarcerated.

The Dilley center has gained national attention in recent months as the Trump administration expanded family immigration detention, sending hundreds of parents and children to the isolated, remote facility while lawyers warned of possible human rights violations.

DHS has denied claims of poor conditions, saying the facility is equipped to accommodate families and that children receive proper health care, food and schooling. CoreCivic, which employs Dilley under a federal contract, said the health and safety of inmates is their top priority.

Under a decades-old federal court ruling that governs the detention of juvenile immigrants, children generally should not be held in custody for more than 20 days. But lawyers representing the families say many remain detained for weeks or months beyond that limit.

DHS previously protected the Russian family while their asylum case was pending and struck down a legal agreement that imposed the 20-day limit as “a left-wing tool that violates the law and wastes valuable resources funded by US taxpayers.”

Nikita and Oksana’s lawyer, Elora Mukherjee, a Columbia Law School professor and director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic, said her clients’ month-long detention and sudden release reflected what she described as a broader pattern: children held for more than the 20-day limit and released only after sustained legal pressure or media scrutiny.

The administration’s goal, Mukherjee said, appears to be “making detention conditions so painful and intolerable that children and adults alike abandon their immigration cases.”

“My clients from New Jersey to Texas have abandoned legal immigration cases, legal visa applications, because they can’t continue to be incarcerated,” she said.

For Nikita and Oksana, giving up was not an option. Returning to Russia would be dangerous, they say, because of Nikita’s opposition to President Vladimir Putin’s government.

The terms of their release were not clear, Mukherjee said. He said they plan to live with a sponsor family in California and may be required to attend regular screenings with Immigration and Customs Enforcement as their case moves forward — a surveillance process often used by previous administrations before DHS began arresting parents and children in large numbers last year.

This family’s path to detention began more than a year ago, when they fled Russia to Mexico. After a year of trying to find the best way to safety, they crossed the US border and asked for asylum, hoping that America would be a safe haven.

Instead, they were transferred to Dilley.

In an interview with NBC News last week, the family described bleak days together as the children grew up with no jobs, little to do and few familiar comforts. They said the food was plentiful, greasy and sometimes inedible, and there was no education.

Kamilla suffered recurring ear infections that were complicated by what her parents described as comforting medical care and hours of waiting outside in freezing cold or rain for each dose of medication, resulting in what they described as mild hearing loss and chronic pain. In an earlier statement, DHS defended the girl’s treatment, saying the Dilley children received “complete medical care.”

When an immigration official told them Monday — their 135th day in federal custody — that they would soon be released, they felt goosebumps and doubts. Some families, they said, were told they were leaving “tomorrow,” but stayed for weeks.

“We are not happy when we go out,” Oksana said to each other.

When it was heard that their release was still awaited, some prisoners did not wait to celebrate, said the couple. The dining hall erupted as parents and children clapped and shouted — a roar so loud, Kamilla said, that she felt pain in her injured right ear.

Some families came in tears. Others said they had been praying for them.

Life in prison was a painful introduction to the country that Nikita and Oksana hoped would provide their children with safety.

But they have not given up hope.

They recalled a conversation with a prisoner who had lived in the US for years before his arrest and his family were brought to Dilley. The man told Nikita not to judge America for what they experienced at the center.

“This is not America,” said the man. “If you go over the fence, you’ll change your mind in a minute. People out there want to help.”

At first, Nikita said they were in disbelief, but after Mukherjee and others came forward in recent weeks, their opinion began to change.

“In a way,” Nikita said on a video call, “he restored our faith in the people.”