Ilia, young Russian dissident facing never-ending detention - American Immigration Council

Ilia, young Russian dissident facing never-ending detention - American Immigration Council

Ilia is a 24-year-old pro-democracy activist who recently fled a threatening environment in his native Russia. But after escaping, he was taken into custody and put into jail-like detention by the very country he believed would protect him: the United States. “I fled Russia because of increasingly harsh laws, because of a government that started persecuting me for my political views and my sexual orientation,” says Ilia. “I believed the United S…