A na María had been happy living in the US. She had an asylum case going through the US immigration system and was working, becoming part of the community, living with her boyfriend and was grateful for safe harbor. But after she was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), she had such a horrendous experience that, in desperation, she agreed to be deported back to her native country in South America, back to danger and thousands of miles away from the life she had been building. She was shuttled around to at least six places of detention in three months, shackled each time she was transferred and packed in with other women suffering the same indignities, despite having no criminal record in the US or her home country, she told the Guardian in an exclusive interview. “They treated us worse than criminals, like dogs – well, a dog lives better than that in the US,” she said, in phone calls from South America, conducted in Spanish.…