Donald Trump has deported dozens of political refugees fleeing Vladimir Putin back to Russia.

At least two deportation flights have returned Russian dissidents, who fear they will face retribution from the Kremlin, back to Moscow.

Russians who fled their country after Putin invaded Ukraine told The Telegraph they fear being torn from their families and sent home, amid Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Experts have branded the practice “cruel and mean”, warning Putin will use the crackdown on Russians to discredit the West and scare dissidents into believing they cannot escape to safety.

A married father, who asked to remain anonymous, fearing for his family’s safety, told The Telegraph how having escaped Moscow in 2022, he lives in fear that he will be torn from his family and forced back to Russia.

He and his family entered the US legally on visas before applying for asylum. But he now fears Mr Trump could suddenly decide to deport them, given they were allowed into the country under Joe Biden.

‘I could face treason charges’

Mr Trump has already reversed several Biden-era immigration laws, including ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan nationals, terminating humanitarian parole programmes that allowed some migrants from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti to enter the US legally, and tightening the criteria for asylum seekers fleeing domestic violence.

“What we fear is some chaotic, spontaneous campaign in Trump’s spirit to expel absolutely all Russian asylum seekers who were allowed into the country under Biden,” he told The Telegraph.

“That would be disastrous for us. We would never, for love or money, agree to detention and separation from our children.

“And if I were forced to return to Putin’s Russia, nothing good would await me there: I could face treason charges.”

“My wife keeps asking me ‘Are we also in a fascist country? Because we left one fascist country for the benefit of a normal country... It doesn’t look like the United States is a normal country, because what they’re doing, what ICE is doing, it’s just wrong,” he added.

“They put an ultimatum in the face of good people: accept the detention centre and you will be shackled and taken from your children for a few months, or agree to be deported.”

‘Parents in ICE facility’

His comments follow the case of Evgeny, Evgeniia, and their eight-year-old son Maksim.

The family, who told the New York Times they had fled Russia seeking political asylum, claimed they were given the choice of returning home or being separated from their son and being sent to an ICE facility.

They had tried to enter the US through the Mexican border, under a Biden administration programme which allowed those who used a government app to gain entry. Mr Trump had cancelled this on Jan 20.

After the family instead drove to a port of entry and asked for asylum, they claim they were given the choice to either be split up or sent home. They chose to split up, and have since passed protection screening, meaning they cannot be returned to Russia.

As of last month, the parents remain in an ICE facility and, Maksim is currently in a foster home, according to the New York Times.

While the majority of migrants entering the US through the Mexican border tend to be from South and Central America, around 70,000 Russians are thought to have crossed into the US following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In June, a deportation flight returned 47 Russians to Moscow via Cairo, according to The Times.

Two months later, between 30 and 60 others were sent back.

In Russia, the deportees were interrogated by security officials, and those without criminal convictions were released.

‘Worst fears are coming true’

Vladimir Osechkin, a Russian human rights activist who runs the website Gulagu.net, told The Telegraph: “Unfortunately, my worst fears and predictions are coming true.

“Last year, we started ringing the alarm bells and reporting on systemic violations of asylum seekers’ rights in the US, when almost everyone who entered through the Mexican border under the CBP One programme began to be arrested in detention centres.

“People in need of protection, fleeing from the war and Putin’s dictatorship, torture and repression by the FSB, ended up in US prisons in orange overalls and shackles during transfer, like criminals.”

He added: “This is cruel and mean, and now Russian propaganda and Putin’s special services will actively use it to discredit the West and America with the narrative ‘nowhere to run’ and ‘even America will not save you’.”

“We appeal to the US authorities to stop these deportations and conduct an investigation.”

Trump ‘not thrilled with Putin’

Despite insisting that he would end the Russia-Ukraine conflict on day one of his second term, Mr Trump is yet to secure a ceasefire agreement.

Last month, Mr Trump held a meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska. The pair discussed options for peace, with the US president touting a trilateral meeting between himself, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, and Putin, in the coming weeks, although that is yet to materialise.

Although Mr Trump is close with the Russian, he appears to be increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress and cooperation from Moscow with regard to ending the conflict.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr Trump said he was “not happy...about the whole [war]”.

“No one has been tougher on president Putin [than I have]. I am not thrilled with Putin,” he added, although he was still confident that the two leaders could come to an agreement.

“I believe we are going to get it done,” he said. Despite Mr Trump’s apparent positivity, “The optimism post-Alaska and post-European meeting is gone,” a White House source told Politico.

The US government deported nearly 200,000 people in the first seven months of Mr Trump’s second administration, a department of homeland security source told CNN.

The number is a fraction of the goal of one million deportations reportedly eyed by the Trump administration for Mr Trump’s first year back in office and those who entered the country using CBP One – the Biden-era app to help people claim asylum – are easy targets as the White House tries to ramp up deportations.

Last week, Russian opposition activists Yulia Navalnaya, Vladimir Kara-Murza and Ilya Yashin issued a joint statement urging Mark Carney to grant Russians facing deportation from the US asylum.