A man has thanked his followers for their support as he battles to free his boyfriend from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. 

Eric Duran has been recording his efforts to free boyfriend Juan since 21 July. In a TikTok posted on Sunday (31 August), he said Juan, with whom he has been in a relationship for more than a year, is being held in Louisiana, having been moved from Colorado and Arizona.

“I got a call from someone whose brother-in-law is with Juan and shared they were transferred to this facility,” Duran wrote. “I was then able to confirm through the ICE locator as his information finally showed in the system. Thank you again for all the support.” 

He then mentioned the GoFundMe that has been launched to “help us with legal fees, making sure he has money in there, and potentially setting up to live in a different country”. 

Ninety per cent of $5,500 (£4,000) target has already been raised.

‘Physically exhausting and labour-intensive’

“This is all an intentional and calculated effort by the system to make sure he doesn’t get his due process, because Tuesday was his bond hearing and they moved him before that,” Duran went on to say. 

The system isn’t there to “support in any way, shape or form,” and nobody truly knows where these individuals are. And at one stage he was told his boyfriend had been “sent home”, Duran claimed. 

“The only human experience out of all of this is being able to build a community and being able to show up and support each other. That was truly how I was able to know and confirm that Juan was at the Louisiana facility.

“It’s on us to make sure we know where our loved ones are. All this has been so costly, all this is so physically exhausting and labour-intensive and mentally taxing. I’m so happy there is a community that wants to support in any way they can, so thank you again.”

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ICE officials reportedly ‘burnt out’ by Trump’s immigration crackdown

According to reports, ICE officials are facing “burnout and frustration” as president Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown continues.

Reuters claimed that agents had complained about White House demands for high arrest quotas, said to be as high as 3,000 a day – 10 times the number under president Joe Biden.

“The demands they placed on us were unrealistic. It was not done in a safe manner or the manner to make us most successful,” one official is quoted as saying.

A former ICE agent was initially told by colleagues that they were happy the “cuffs are off” but several months later, he told Reuters that they were now “overwhelmed” by the arrest numbers and “would prefer to go back to focused targeting”.

ICE is reportedly getting $76.5 billion (£56.6 billion) from Congress to help meet Trump’s demands, and the administration has launched a recruitment drive to help fill 10,000 news jobs over the next four years. There have been more than 115,000 applications, according to Homeland Security.