Washington, DC — In a new America’s Voice fact sheet, we highlight examples of U.S. citizens being ensnared by this administration’s mass deportation crusade (see below).
As Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice, stated:
“This administration is making it increasingly clear by their actions that the ‘enemy within’ is us – ordinary, hard-working, God-fearing Americans. As we demonstrate in the examples below, U.S. citizens are being ensnared in the mass deportation crusade. When armed and masked federal immigration agents operate without accountability, no one is safe. The aggressive city-by-city raids are tearing communities apart and violating the constitutional rights of Americans. This isn’t about public safety – it’s about creating division and using immigration as the ‘tip of the spear’ in their broader assault on the core democratic institutions that protect the rights and privileges of all Americans.
American citizens are being assaulted, detained, and held for hours or days despite showing valid identification, exposing another dangerous component of Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Below are 15 examples of the many documented cases of U.S. citizens detained in Trump’s mass deportation operations happening in cities and counties from coast-to-coast:
- Leo Garcia Venegas – U.S. citizen detained twice at a construction site in Baldwin County, Alabama. Immigration agents claimed his Alabama REAL ID driver’s license was fake.
- Venegas: “It feels like there’s nothing I can do to stop immigration agents from arresting me whenever they want. I just want to work in peace. The Constitution protects my ability to do that.”
- Isaiah Johnson – U.S. citizen detained during the largest raid in Chicago, Illinois’ history and held for nearly two hours with zip-tie handcuffs. Johnson was one of two adult U.S. citizens who, alongside four U.S. citizen children, were detained in the raid.
- Rodrick Johnson – U.S. citizen detained in the largest raid in Chicago, Illinois’ history alongside Isaiah Johnson and four U.S. citizen children.
- Johnson: “I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up… I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought me one.”
- Cary López Alvarado – U.S. citizen, nine months pregnant, was hospitalized after ICE detained her during a raid targeting her husband at their home in Hawthorne, California.
- Lopez: “I wasn’t resisting or anything…you’re going to handcuff me, but I’m not, I’m not, I can’t fight back. I’m pregnant.”
- Joe Botello – U.S. citizen detained in his own home in Elgin, Illinois, by masked immigration agents who never read him his rights.
- Rodrigo Almendarez – U.S. citizen detained in Simi Valley, California while working and only released when his coworkers intervened.
- Fox 11: “They just got me by surprise. I didn’t know what was going on, who they were. What did I do wrong? They never told me who they were or who they were looking for or anything.”
- George Retes – U.S. citizen and veteran in Camarillo, California detained for three days without phone access or legal representation, even though his citizenship ID was in his wallet.
- San Francisco Chronicle: “It would have taken them two minutes to check my papers and confirm that I was a citizen. Instead, they arrested me because I was there.”
- Ramiro Martinez – U.S. citizen arrested and thrown to the ground in Dexter Township, Michigan. Agents refused to let him show ID proving his citizenship.
- Martinez said an agent muttered “s—, he’s a citizen” before releasing him.
- Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez – U.S. citizen detained for 24 hours in Tallahassee, Florida, during a traffic stop despite showing his Social Security card and driver’s license.
- Ernesto Campos – U.S. citizen detained in Bakersfield, California, and arrested for “alien smuggling.” Agents slashed his tires and broke his windows despite his cooperation.
- Jose Hermosillo – U.S. citizen detained for 10 days in Tucson, Arizona after asking Border Patrol for help following a hospital visit.
- Mother Jones: “Since his release, Hermosillo has struggled. ‘When I dream, I dream I’m still in there,’ he said.”
- Kenny Laynez Ambrocio – U.S. citizen and high school senior detained at a traffic stop in Palm Beach, Florida.
- Miami Herald reported officers saying: “They’re starting to resist more now…We’re going to end up shooting some of them” and “you have no rights… you’re a ‘migo’ brother.”
- Dana Briggs – U.S. citizen and 70-year-old Air Force veteran arrested and thrown to the ground by ICE while peacefully protesting outside a detention center in Broadview, Illinois.
- Andrea Velez – U.S. citizen detained in Los Angeles, California while being dropped off at work and held for two days without water for 24 hours. A plainclothed agent falsely claimed they didn’t need to show a badge or warrant.
- NBC News reported Velez says this has “traumatized her…and that she has not been able to physically return to work.”
- Elzon Lemus – U.S. citizen detained on his way to work in Nassau County, New York. He believes he was pulled over because he and his coworker look Hispanic.
