Each morning, Abdellatif Hafraoui sits at the small dining table in the Bayonne apartment he shares with his wife, Sandra, drinking coffee the way he has for the past 15 years. The ritual feels familiar. Everything else does not.
Since August, his days have been shaped by 108 days in ICE detention and the black ankle monitor strapped around his leg. The couple paid a $15,000 bond just before Thanksgiving to secure his release. He had been detained from Aug. 11 to Nov. 26 after ICE agents arrested him at Newark Liberty International Airport.
His Moroccan passport remains in government custody while his immigration case moves forward. “I would like to go back to work, to feel normal again,” Abdellatif, 60, said. “To have my life back without all this fear and uncertainty.”
As of late December, 70,805 people were in ICE detention nationwide, according to USAFacts, a nonprofit that compiles government data. Reports indicate that only a small percentage have criminal records. Abdellatif is among those detained despite having none.
The Hafraouis were headed to Fort Myers, Florida, for a long-overdue vacation when their plans unravelled. At the airport, as they prepared to board, three men in plain clothes and a woman wearing a badge approached them. The woman identified herself as an ICE agent. Abdellatif, dressed in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals, was handcuffed.
“They looked at him and said his ‘status is unclear,’” Sandra recalled. “‘You’re going with us.’ Then the lady pointed at me and said, ‘You don’t want to make a scene here.’” Agents drove him away in an unmarked van, leaving Sandra alone in the terminal with their luggage.
An airport employee noticed her crying and handed her a bottle of water, a small act of kindness she still remembers. Friends Monica and Richard Nuñez, who had flown in from California to meet them, quickly rerouted their plans. “She was huffing and puffing, saying ICE had taken Latif,” Monica said.
“My stomach dropped. I looked at my husband and said, ‘Let’s reroute our trip.’ There was no vacation.” The financial losses were steep, with nonrefundable flights and lodging. “It wasn’t just the money,” Sandra said. “It was everything we put into it.”
Abdellatif came to the United States at 22 and has now lived here for 38 years. “I’m American. I actually don’t know anything that’s going on in Morocco.” Inspired by Hollywood movies, he once told Sandra about watching “Dallas” and calculating what a $50 tip would equal in Moroccan currency.
He built a life in New Jersey, working nearly two decades as a concierge in Midtown Manhattan. But years ago, before marrying Sandra, he hired attorney Earl Seth David to handle his naturalisation paperwork. David failed to notify him of a scheduled immigration court hearing, leading to a deportation order issued in absentia.
The attorney was later convicted in federal court for immigration fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. Unaware of the missed hearing, Abdellatif continued renewing work authorisation. After marrying Sandra in 2011, he filed a spousal petition while pursuing permanent residency. The prior deportation order remained active, and ICE moved to enforce it.
“To think we were MAGA!,” Sandra said. She voted for President Trump three times, believing that enforcement targeted criminals. Now she sees it differently. “You said you were going after the worst of the worst, but instead you ruined our lives.”
During detention, Abdellatif said he was pressured to board a flight and give up his rights. “They told me if I didn’t get on the flight, I would be punished.” When he refused, he was placed in solitary confinement for 10 days. He was later transferred across multiple states and at one point scheduled for deportation before a New Jersey judge overturned the prior order.
With assistance from U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez’s office, he was eventually returned to New Jersey and released on bond. The couple estimates they have spent about $50,000 in legal fees and has started a GoFundMe to help cover costs.
“We just want to be treated like people with rights,” Sandra said. “Not as problems to be managed.” They still hope to take that beach trip someday. “Next time we take a trip,” she said, “we’ll be driving right past the airport.”
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