U.S. citizens – Investigations reveal that over 500 American citizens, including children, have been detained by federal agents during recent immigration enforcement operations, despite government denials.
The plea is simple, desperate, and increasingly common: “I’m a U.S. citizen, please help me.” For more than 500 Americans across the country, that declaration has failed to stop the zip ties, the handcuffs, and the sudden, jarring loss of their freedom.
As the Trump administration pursues a relentless immigration enforcement strategy. federal agents have repeatedly crossed a constitutional line. detaining hundreds of citizens in the process. The government maintains that these occurrences are not happening. asserting that Department of Homeland Security operations are highly targeted and that allegations of indiscriminate stops or racial profiling are categorically false. Yet, the reality on the ground tells a different story.
A comprehensive review of social media. court records. and local media reveals that since January 2025. agents have held more than 500 citizens against their will. This tally. while likely an undercount. includes over 100 Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. nearly all of whom were people of color. At least 70 of those detained were children and teens. some of whom were handcuffed by agents—a practice the government claims does not happen.
The human cost of these operations is stark. In January 2025, agents held a 21-year-old at gunpoint during a raid at a Philadelphia car wash. In Baltimore, a citizen was held for 25 days last December, missing Christmas with her 5-year-old son. In Texas. Brian Morales Garcia told officers he was a citizen; they wouldn’t let him retrieve his birth certificate. held him for four days. and then deported him to Mexico. It took a lawsuit for him to return home just last month.
The administrative machinery behind these actions often operates with little oversight. In Illinois, during the “Operation Midway Blitz” last fall, the government claimed there were no administrative arrests of U.S. citizens. Records, however, show agents detained more than 120 citizens in the state during that same period. Agents have broken into homes without judicial warrants. leaving families to pick up the pieces. as seen in January when Jeyli Salguero’s home was raided and her phone snatched when she attempted to record the encounter.
“I’ve never seen so many U.S. citizen encounters in all my years,” said Darius Reeves, who retired last year after overseeing the ICE office in Baltimore. “It’s an embarrassment.” Eric Balliet. a two-decade veteran of Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol. echoed this. calling the trend “just terrible.”.
The tension between enforcement and civil rights is most visible on the streets. Agents have detained 63 citizens while they were recording, a protected First Amendment activity. In one instance. clarinet player Oriana Korol was tackled and handcuffed while protesting; in another. a teen in New York was bloodied and dumped in an unfamiliar neighborhood. Even those who supported the crackdown have found themselves entangled. Willy Wender Aceituno. a naturalized citizen who voted for Trump twice. was yanked from his truck and held down on the pavement by agents last November. “Having papers in this country does not protect you,” he said.
While the Department of Homeland Security asserts that it performs due diligence and that those obstructing agents face consequences. the legal system suggests a breakdown in that process. Of more than 300 Americans tracked for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents. fewer than half were actually charged in federal court. and many of those cases were subsequently dismissed.
For families like those of Anabel Romero. whose children were detained at an Idaho horse track. the fear has become a permanent feature of daily life. Her 7-year-old son now warns his sister to carry a phone to film, fearing another encounter. In this climate of aggressive enforcement. the boundary between immigrant and citizen has blurred. leaving the constitutional rights of hundreds of Americans in a state of indefinite suspension.
immigration U.S. citizens ICE DHS detentions Trump administration civil rights ProPublica deportation