50-year-old Larysa Kostak had lived in Brooklyn for almost 20 years when she was arrested at a routine immigration hearing in June. “My life stopped in that moment because I [didn’t] know what was going on,” she remembered.

Speaking with Spectrum News NY1, Larysa described her harrowing experience in a Louisiana ICE detention facility hundreds of miles from her home. 

After months of advocacy and litigation from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, Larysa was finally released earlier this month – but she still remembers the women left behind. “Everyone wanted to give me a hug. And some of them cry. And I think they think when they touch me, they will be released or going back home soon,” she said. 

Watch the full segment here.