Seven Central American women detained in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas sent a letter to Barack Obama on Thursday pleading for mercy and freedom for their families.

“We and our children are sick with depression and in psychological crisis,” the letter reads. “We need to be free like human beings to be able to fight our cases outside with dignity.”

The detainees are among 121 individuals who were taken into custody in a multi-state roundup of Central American families three weeks ago. The weekend raids, some of which took place in the middle of the night, caused alarm and anger in Latino communities. The Obama administration has shown no sign that it might change course on its policy of prioritizing recent border crossers, even ones who pose no apparent security threat.

Originally written in Spanish, the letter questioned the morality of Obama’s decision by asking: “Why did you choose to make an example of us to frighten other Central American families, with no regard for the suffering it causes us and our children?”

It states that as a result of being detained, some families have lost their homes.

Most of the raids, which occurred during the first weekend of the year, occurred in Georgia, North Carolina and Texas and targeted recent arrivals from Central America, many of whom had fled violence in their native countries. They were taken to a family detention center in Texas, officials said, and about 77 were deported within a week to Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. In a statement then, the homeland security secretary, Jeh Johnson, said the 121 individuals had “exhausted appropriate legal remedies”.

Mohammad Abdollahi, of the immigrant rights organization providing legal counsel to the detainees, Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (Raices), said: “The cases of these families are alarming, they were all taken during winter break when the kids were planning to return to school. Now they are in jail. One of the mothers has had seven seizures since being detained in Atlanta on the 2nd.”

Despite Johnson’s assertions, the CARA project, which Raices is a part of, has successfully applied for an emergency stay of removal while the board of immigration appeals considers their cases. They have also accused ICE of violating due process by denying the detainees access to an attorney.

One detainee, Gloria Rivas of El Salvador, told the Guardian on 6 January that “[ICE] told us we had to sign deportation orders, and that there was no other option”.

She and the letter’s other signers also alluded to a federal court ruling that stated minors and their guardians could not be detained for over 20 days without proof that they are a flight risk and a national security threat. “We have been detained for almost 30 days,” the letter states, “and that implies you are violating our rights.”

