A New Jersey woman who voted for President Donald Trump in the last three elections said her family’s life fell apart after immigration authorities detained her husband for more than three months when they tried to leave the country for a vacation.
Sandra Hafraoui told The Daily Beast that her husband, Abdellatif Hafraoui, spent 108 days in federal custody after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him at Newark Liberty International Airport.
Abdellatif Hafraoui, a Moroccan national, has lived in the United States for nearly 40 years and has no criminal record, the outlet reported.
The Daily Beast, citing NJ.com, reported that authorities detained him because of a missed immigration court date more than a decade ago, which he said he did not know had been scheduled.
“To think we were MAGA!” Sandra Hafraoui said in comments the outlet attributed to her interview with NJ.com. “You [Trump] said you were going after the worst of the worst, but instead you ruined our life.”
Trump built his 2024 campaign in part around a promise to carry out the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. Administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, have repeatedly said that enforcement efforts target serious offenders.
The Hafraouis’ case, the Daily Beast wrote, has become a growing example cited by critics who say the enforcement dragnet has swept up people with strong ties to the country and no criminal convictions.
The Daily Beast reported that ICE detained Abdellatif Hafraoui on Aug. 11 and held him until Nov. 26, when he and his wife posted a $15,000 bond for his release. The outlet said the government kept his Moroccan passport while he continues to fight his case.
Abdellatif Hafraoui said immigration officials placed him in solitary confinement for 10 days after he refused to board a commercial flight and sign documents that would waive his rights. The outlet reported that this incident occurred roughly two and a half weeks into his detention.
After his release, an immigration judge required him to wear an electronic ankle monitor and report for regular check-ins, the Daily Beast said. The couple estimated they have spent about $50,000 on legal fees.
“We just want to be treated like people with rights,” Sandra Hafraoui said, according to the Daily Beast’s account of the case. “Not as problems to be managed.”
Data compiled from ICE figures has fueled debate over how immigration authorities select targets for detention. A Cato Institute analysis of ICE booking data said that since Oct. 1, 2025, nearly three in four people booked into ICE custody had no criminal conviction, and nearly half had neither a conviction nor any pending criminal charges.
TRAC Reports, which tracks immigration court and detention data, reported that as of Feb. 7, 2026, 73.6% of people held in ICE detention had no criminal conviction.
DHS was recently forced to delete several immigrants from its website after CNN discovered that many were hit with false charges. Many prominent MAGA voters have criticized ICE for targeting non-criminals and harassing American citizens.
