British father, 29, trapped in ICE detention says he was 'treated like a murderer' after being dragged away from American wife and twins

By JOSHUA HAINING, NEWS REPORTER Published: 09:56, 24 July 2026 | Updated: 09:57, 24 July 2026 A British father trapped in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention has said he was 'treated like a murderer' after being dragged away from his American wife and twin sons. Connor Read from Chatham, Kent, has lived in Florida since he was nine years old but now the Department of Homeland Security is attempting to deport him. The 29-year-old has spent more than seven weeks in a Louisiana detention centre alongside men arrested for drug trafficking and domestic abuse, after he was ripped away from his family. Mr Read was seized by four ICE agents during a green card interview on June 3 while his wife, Jaelin, 25, and two sons, Ryder and Ozzie, sat in the immigration centre waiting room.    He was quickly arrested and moved out of the building in Tampa Bay, before immigration officials told Mrs Read that he would not be coming home. Mr Read spent the following eight days in a 'dirty' and 'horrible' shared cell in Pinellas County Jail, Florida, where breakfast was served at 2am. He was then flown to Louisiana with his hands and legs tied together which he said was like 'transporting a bunch of murderers'. Mrs Read said that her two sons, three, refused to leave the waiting room after they were told their father had been arrested in Tampa Bay.  Connor Read, 29, has spent more than seven weeks in a detention centre after he was seized by ICE Mr Read was ripped away from his wife, Jaelin, 25, and his twin sons, Ozzie and Ryder, both three The father-of-two, originally from Chatham in Kent moved with his mother and step-father to the US aged nine 'Ozzie just planted his butt and was like: "No, I’m waiting for Daddy," and sat back down in the waiting room after they separated us,' she told The Times. 'Ryder took off towards the metal detectors. It was a mess. There were 150 people in this waiting room. It was a genuine nightmare. 'I’m carrying a wad of paperwork we had prepared for the last two and a half weeks before this appointment. They didn’t even have a look at any of it. It felt like such a ruse.'  Mr Read moved to the US with his mother and stepfather where he has lived for more than 20 years.  However, an arrest for taking a bag of beers to a party nearly a decade ago along with other smaller crimes is the reason for Mr Read's attempted deportation.   Mrs Read shared a heartfelt Facebook post on July 4, a month since her husband was detained. The post read: 'For those asking how I’m doing, I spend a lot of my time with my children at home, cleaning, cooking, tending to their every request and answering a lot of questions about their daddy.  Mr Read smiles with his identical twin sons, Ozzie and Ryder, as they pose for a picture on a bed Mr Read moved to the US with his mother and stepfather where he has lived for more than 20 years 'Some days, we wake up and get ready for the day and they ask if we’re getting ready to pick him up.  'It breaks my heart to see these boys want for someone who’s been here their entire life. Some days are harder than others but we stay afloat.' She added: 'We have decisions to make in the background that are very difficult and crushing as we are facing the off-chance of his deportation.' A GoFundMe set up to support Mrs Read and her twin sons, while her husband is detained, has raised more than £4,500. Mr Read is one of 51,000 undocumented migrants being held in ICE since the start of July.  The last time the number of migrants held in ICE detention was higher was in September 2019.