Colombian migrants deported from the U.S. during the early days of President Donald Trump’s administration say they faced humiliating treatment, though some still express a desire to try returning to the U.S. again.

Daniel Vásquez, 40, expected to be released quickly after being apprehended by U.S. immigration officials when he crossed the Mexican border in January. He had paid a group of smugglers, the so-called “coyotes,” $500 to help him cross, and their leader had assured him he would be held for only a few hours.

However, Vásquez ended up in detention for more than a week in migrant centers in San Diego, California, and Laredo, Texas, describing the experience as “an emotional rollercoaster.”

The San Diego facility was overcrowded, he said, and the bright lights kept him awake. Later, he was flown to Laredo, where he was held for four days before being sent back to San Diego, where he was placed on a flight to Colombia. Each time he was transferred, he was shackled.

“Feeling those handcuffs and experiencing that situation was very strange for me. It was sad. It was shocking, humiliating,” he said.

U.S. officials have long used handcuffs and leg shackles on migrants during transfers. But since Trump took office last month, the governments of Brazil and Colombia have condemned the inhumane treatment of migrants on deportation flights.

Deportees on a flight to Brazil told local media they were mistreated and not allowed to use the restroom. Vásquez said he saw women urinating in their seats on his flight.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), responsible for border control and migration, did not respond to inquiries about the treatment of migrants on flights or about the claims that they were denied access to restrooms.

Vásquez’s deportation flight to Colombia was one of those Colombian President Gustavo Petro requested to be sent back due to reports of mistreatment on board. Petro’s move led to a trade dispute with Trump, which was eventually resolved when Bogotá announced it would send its own planes to bring migrants back.

Closing In

The governments of Brazil and India have pledged to work with the U.S. to ensure migrants are treated properly during deportation flights.

The president of Guatemala has agreed to accept deportees of other nationalities, while El Salvador has offered to house criminals from the U.S. in its prisons.

José Vicente Suárez, 58, another Colombian deportee, was also on one of the flights that Petro blocked but was later deported on a different flight.

Suárez began his journey north last May, crossing the perilous Darién jungle in Panama and making his way through Central America to Mexico. He said other migrants had been victims of robbery, violence, and sexual assault.

The journey cost him about 25 million Colombian pesos (roughly $6,000) and left him in debt, Suárez said. After more than seven months on the road, he was deported just two weeks after crossing the U.S. border in January.

Suárez also complained about mistreatment in San Diego before being detained and flown to El Paso, Texas.

“They break you down psychologically,” Suárez said, describing how he was woken up as many as five times a night and forced to sit for up to 90 minutes in a hallway, similar to Vásquez’s experience.

ICE did not respond to inquiries regarding allegations of mistreatment in migrant detention centers.

Vásquez said he had no way of informing his family where he was and resorted to scratching his relatives’ phone numbers onto empty raisin boxes and handing them to other detainees who were about to be released. He later found out that one of them had contacted his sister.

Vásquez, who said he had previously entered the U.S. using different types of visas, is eager to return and find a lawyer to go through legal channels, convinced that he will have better job opportunities in the U.S. than in Colombia.

Suárez, however, who had hoped to work and live with his children in the U.S., said he has no intention of trying again.

“I wouldn’t advise anyone to go,” he said.