Thomas Bilger, a 40-year-old German national who has lived and worked in the United States for ten years and has been married to an American woman for one year, was arrested by ICE agents during a hearing to process his green card application in San Diego. According to his mother, Gabi Bilger, he was placed in handcuffs and leg shackles after officials accused him of overstaying his visa, even though his lawyer had told him his pending green card application protected him. He spent his first three days in a cell with about 30 other green card applicants, where they had little room, slept on the floor, and received inadequate food, and he was repeatedly moved between locations. A judge released him on bail last Friday, but he still must wear an electronic ankle monitor, and he was dropped off without money, a phone, or identification at a bus station roughly 30 kilometers from his San Diego home near the Mexican border, where his wife found him only by chance. His mother said the ordeal has left her son with nightmares and claustrophobia, and that his wife no longer feels safe in their home.