Federal immigration authorities wrongfully detain U.S. citizens

Immigration law in the United States is based on the idea that all people, regardless of how they entered the country, have rights. Respecting the fundamental human rights of all people is not a "woke" idea invented by liberals in the last few years. The Refugee Act of 1980, which passed Congress unanimously, gives migrants inside the United States the right to claim asylum based on "a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." It was enacted "in part to make amends for the country’s shameful refusal to accept Jewish refugees during the Holocaust."

The aggressive mass deportation policy of President Trump, which calls for the rapid removal of millions of people, is inconsistent with immigration law and broader constitutional guarantees of due process. These legal principles are not just important to protect the rights of undocumented immigrants. They are necessary to protect the rights of everyone in the country, including United States citizens.

Since Trump took office, numerous citizens have been detained, sometimes for days, on "suspicion" that they were undocumented. "U.S. citizens should not be detained by ICE, yet they are continuing to get swept up in these racially motivated raids and collateral arrests," ACLU attorney Amy Godshall told the Independent.

Jose Hermosillo

19-year-old Jose Hermosillo lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his girlfriend and 9-month-old daughter. Hermosillo was visiting Tucson, when he passed by the Border Patrol headquarters, and "an agent arrested him for illegally entering the country." Hermosillo, who was not carrying identification, told immigration officials that he was a U.S. citizen, but they did not believe him.

Court documents obtained by Danyelle Khmara of AZPM say that Hermosillo was detained "at or near Nogales, Arizona" and that he admitted he was not a citizen.

Nogales is more than an hour from Tucson. Hermosillo says he has never been to Nogales.

His family had no idea where he was, but eventually his girlfriend's aunt tracked him down at the Florence Correctional Center, an ICE detention center. He was held for 10 days before an immigration judge dismissed his case and ordered his release. ICE would not comment on his arrest.

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Julio Noriega

54-year-old Julio Noriega was arrested by ICE officers on January 31 in Berwyn, Illinois, while he was out applying for work at area businesses. Noriega, who was born in Chicago, "was approached by ICE officers who grabbed and handcuffed him and put him into a van, without an opportunity to explain his citizenship," according to a federal lawsuit.

Noriega was held for "about 10 hours" when ICE officers "reviewed the contents of Julio’s wallet, realized he was a U.S. citizen." He was released "with no money and no paperwork." Noriega was arrested as part of a larger sweep of 22 individuals.

Bachir Atallah and Jessica Fakhri

Bachir Atallah and Jessica Fakhri, a married couple, were detained by immigration authorities while returning by car from a family vacation in Canada earlier this month. "They held us in two separate cells, and neither of us had shoes or a jacket," Atallah said. "It was freezing." Both Atallah and Fakhri are U.S. citizens. Atallah is originally from Lebanon and become a naturalized citizen ten years ago.

Atallah said that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents requested permission to look through his email. He agreed to the search of his phone "under duress."

The pair was released after being detained for five hours. In a statement, the CBP said its officers "acted in accordance with established protocols." Atallah's account was "blatantly false and sensationalized."

Aggressive tactics have not accelerated deportations

The aggressive tactics that have ensnared U.S. citizens are not resulting in the increased deportation of migrants; the Trump administration has not increased the overall pace of deportations as compared to the prior administration.

According to Reuters, "Trump deported 37,660 people during his first month in office, previously unpublished U.S. Department of Homeland Security data show, far less than the monthly average of 57,000 removals and returns in the last full year of Joe Biden's administration." Over the first two months of the Trump administration, there were "258 deportation flights…about the level in the final months of the Biden administration," according to an analysis by the New York Times.

Notably, "the federal government has not released data on whom it is deporting." But whatever the exact figures, it is clear that the administration is falling "short of the mass deportations… Trump vowed to carry out." The reality is that, even trampling on the rights of American citizens — and ignoring legal protections for migrants — is not enough to fulfill Trump's wildly unrealistic promises.