Border-Crossers May Be Sent To Infamous 'Freezers'

Border-Crossers Face Infamous 'Hieleras'
FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2007 file photo, a group of suspected immigrants walk back into Mexico with their guide after seeing the U.S. Border Patrol at the Arizona-Mexico border in Sasabe, Ariz. A federal judge has barred use of a policy that allowed people who paid to be sneaked into the United States to be charged under Arizona?s immigrant smuggling law as conspirators to the crime. U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield?s ruling said the interpretation of the 2005 state law conflicts with federal law. The ruling is the latest in a series of restrictions placed on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio?s immigration enforcement efforts. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 19, 2007 file photo, a group of suspected immigrants walk back into Mexico with their guide after seeing the U.S. Border Patrol at the Arizona-Mexico border in Sasabe, Ariz. A federal judge has barred use of a policy that allowed people who paid to be sneaked into the United States to be charged under Arizona?s immigrant smuggling law as conspirators to the crime. U.S. District Judge Robert Broomfield?s ruling said the interpretation of the 2005 state law conflicts with federal law. The ruling is the latest in a series of restrictions placed on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio?s immigration enforcement efforts. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

The moment Border Patrol agents swooped in on Claudia and her husband, Marvin, as they tried to sneak across the Rio Grande, the 31-year-old mother of two almost felt relief.

It had been an arduous 18-day journey from their native of El Salvador, which they had fled for fear of their lives at the hands—and machetes—of a vicious gang, she said in a recent interview.

But she soon faced a new, unexpected ordeal as she quickly was separated from her husband and locked away with her preteen son and infant girl in cold cells with an ominous name.

“Then they took us,” Claudia said, “to the famous hieleras.”

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