Catalinas husband was arrested alongside nearly 700 other people in a massive ICE raid on food processing plants in Mississippi last summer. Marisas husband was on the way home from a construction job in Florida. ICE agents surprised Natalias husband two months ago during his routine immigration check-in with ISAP , a program that had been monitoring his whereabouts since he entered the U.S. without documents in 2018.

With the coronavirus spreading like wildfire in U.S. detention facilities, the three women have been worried and outraged for weeks over the lack of protection for their loved ones in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Though less than 2% of immigration detainees across the country had been tested for the coronavirus, 60% of those test results had come back positive as of April 21, the Miami Herald reported .

Catalinas husband is in a Louisiana detention facility with seven confirmed COVID-19 cases at last count, though the numbers ICE reports often lag far behind actual cases. Last month, ICE admitted that 350 detainees had been exposed to the coronavirus at Krome Processing Center in Miami, where Marisas husband is still imprisoned. He told her more than a week ago that he had a fever.

Despite a national movement to release people in detention facilities of all kinds, ICE had freed fewer than 700 immigrants as of mid-April. (After her interview with HuffPost, Natalias husband was one of them, and he rejoined his family on April 3.) Nearly 30,000 people were still in ICE detention as of April 25. Detainees are continuing to stage protests and hunger strikes , and their family members and allies outside are increasing the legal and political pressure on ICE to let more people go. In light of recent court rulings , Catalina and fellow activists are pushing for the release of her husband, Baldomero Orozco Juarez , on the basis of his chronic kidney problems.

Meanwhile, the three women told HuffPost about becoming their families lone providers and raising young children struggling to understand their fathers incarceration during a global pandemic. Marisa was a housekeeper, Natalia worked at a beauty salon and Marisa sold food but because of the coronavirus, none of them could keep working. Theyve been relying on help from their churches, generous strangers, activists and fellow immigrants who are fighting beside them to free the people in ICE detention. Heres what they want you to know about their experiences.

Responses in Spanish and Portuguese have been translated, condensed and edited. Marisa and Catalinas real names were changed at their request to protect their identities.

Marisa, 33, from Honduras

Ruben was the one who paid the rent, and Rubens in jail.

Ruben was arrested about two months ago; I dont remember the exact date. Hes in Krome Processing Center [in Miami]. They arrested him while he was leaving work [in construction]; he was going home to where he lives in Panama City, which is six hours from where we live here in Louisiana. He was leaving work with a co-worker and the police stopped him, asked for his drivers license, and since he doesnt have one, they arrested him.

We have two kids; a 12-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl. Right now, were having a really hard time here. We have to pay rent, and here in the state of Louisiana, its not like other states [that have bans on evictions due to the coronavirus]. The owner of the house always calls me and says I owe her two months rent. Last month, she called and threatened that she was going to kick me out. I have two kids, and theres no work; I work in housekeeping and the hotels are closed.

Ruben was the one who paid the rent, and Rubens in jail. My mom is here, an older woman in her 60s who has diabetes. Were having a really hard time right now.

He calls me by telephone. Sometimes its really difficult because you have to add money for extra minutes, and since Im not working, I dont have money right now. Ruben is worried because theyve already had patients there in Krome with symptoms of coronavirus, like a fever. Ruben called me just this morning and said hes feeling bad and has a fever, and he doesnt know anything and hes worried because they still have him locked up.

Theyre all in the same place. Youre supposed to keep your distance from people to avoid contagion, but in Krome, they arent doing that. The prisoners are all mixed together. And there are contagious people, there are people with the virus and people theyve taken out of there who were sick.

The first week or two weeks Ruben was there, they didnt have any masks; they had nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Then they started to see the news and realize what was going on and they started to give out masks, but its not the same. They dont do it every day like they should. Youre not supposed to use masks multiple times; you have to disinfect them.

The prisoners dont know anything. Sometimes, they can watch the news, but one day, Ruben said that they didnt let them see it, they turned off the news. But they have to take care of the prisoners. These arent people who have killed. The only crime the father of my children committed was not having a document. Hes not a murderer or a criminal.