Natalia fled Russia fearing imminent arrest for her family's opposition activism and sought political asylum in the United States. But instead of refuge, she found herself locked in jail for over a year, separated from her husband and children and dreading deportation.

With the Trump administration stepping up removals as part of its sweeping anti-immigration crackdown, rights activists warn that deporting Russian dissidents puts them at risk of prison and persecution back home.

"I supported the opposition, I supported opposition activists who were against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's regime," Natalia told AFP in a phone interview from an immigration detention center in the southern state of Louisiana. "If I return to Russia, I will be arrested."

Clad in an orange prison uniform, Natalia shares a dormitory with about 60 other women sleeping in bunk beds. Showers and toilets are in the same room, behind curtains that don't offer privacy or respite from the foul smell.

Tens of thousands of Russians have applied for political asylum in the United States, many by crossing the border from Mexico, since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Moscow's........

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