Dayanne Figueroa was on her way to work in Chicago last month when she drove onto a street where an immigration enforcement action was in progress. As she attempted to drive around the chaos, an unmarked vehicle collided with her car. Masked men jumped out of the vehicle, guns drawn and dragged Figueroa from her car by her legs. She was thrown into a minivan, taken away and held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for hours. Dayanne Figueroa is an American citizen.
Figueroa’s arrest, captured in a now-viral video, illustrates the growing number of U.S. citizens caught up in federal immigration actions. These arrests and detentions violate ICE guidelines as well as the Constitution.
Figueroa’s case is not an isolated incident. The nonprofit newsroom ProPublica has documented more than 170 cases of U.S. citizens, mostly Latinos, being detained at raids and protests since January.
Americans have been tackled, tased, beaten and shot by immigration authorities. Some citizens have been held without access to counsel or the ability to call their loved ones. They include a 79-year-old man who was body-slammed to the ground by agents in Van Nuys, an Army veteran in Camarillo who was tear-gassed before being thrown in detention for three days, and a Cal Poly Pomona grad who was knocked down by agents and spent two nights in jail.
There are likely many more cases of U.S. citizens held by immigration authorities that have not come to light. The actual numbers are unknown because the government does not release statistics about such encounters.
ICE policies state that “as a matter of law, ICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest and/or detain U.S. citizens.” These same guidelines say that agents are supposed to “carefully and expeditiously investigate” citizenship claims and to “handle these matters with the utmost care and highest priority.”
Clearly, agents are not following this guidance for dealing with citizens. An Alabama man was detained twice by ICE, despite having a REAL ID card on him. Figueroa, the Chicago woman dragged from her vehicle, was zip-tied and arrested by agents who refused to believe that her passport was real. These people were carrying valid proof of their citizenship — and were detained anyway.
The wrongful arrest of U.S. citizens by immigration agents is not new; it happened under Presidents Biden and Obama, and during President Trump’s first term. What is new is that Homeland Security and ICE are dramatically ramping up enforcement actions, while operating with less oversight than in the past. This has resulted in greater potential for mistakes — and for more traumatized or injured Americans.
The government denies that these episodes are happening. “There’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in October. “We focus on those that are here illegally.” Any evidence to the contrary, she asserted, was “simply not true.” Noem’s claim was rated “Pants on Fire!” by the website Politifact. It also is contradicted by Homeland Security press releases explaining why some citizens have been arrested or detained.
When citizens are arrested by immigration agents, it is frequently on the grounds of assaulting or impeding officers. The ProPublica report, however, found that such charges often were dismissed later or dropped. That’s what happened to Figueroa in Chicago. A Homeland Security spokesperson called her “an agitator” who was arrested “for assault on a federal agent.” Yet once Figueroa was released from detention, no charges were filed against her.
A recent Supreme Court ruling allows immigration agents to use factors including race, ethnicity and language as grounds for stopping people who they suspect of being in the country illegally. But this decision is not a license for ICE to harass, assault or abuse citizens. All Americans still have the right to due process, to equal protection under the law and to be free from illegal search and seizures under the 4th Amendment.
Democratic lawmakers are right to demand more scrutiny of ICE activities. Immigration agents must be certain that they are acting within their jurisdiction before detaining any individual, and they should be better trained to handle encounters involving citizens. The government should track statistics on such incidents. These proposals are not unreasonable; under the spending bill signed in July, ICE has more than $28 billion at its disposal for this year alone.
At stake here are not only the rights of U.S. citizens but also trust in federal law enforcement. An October YouGov poll found that 60% of Americans believe that ICE is arresting citizens “Often” or “Sometimes.” This is a low vote of confidence for an agency that is already unpopular with the public.
ICE practices endanger the safety, due process and civil liberties of U.S. citizens. The unlawful arrests and detention of Americans must end.
Raul A. Reyes is an immigration attorney and contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion. X: @RaulAReyes; Instagram: @raulareyes1
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