Dayanne Figueroa was on her technique to work in Chicago final month when she drove onto a avenue the place an immigration enforcement motion was in progress. As she tried to drive across the chaos, an unmarked automobile collided along with her automobile. Masked males jumped out of the automobile, weapons drawn and dragged Figueroa from her automobile by her legs. She was thrown right 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 rising variety of U.S. residents caught up in federal immigration actions. These arrests and detentions violate ICE pointers in addition to the Structure.
Figueroa’s case will not be an remoted incident. The nonprofit newsroom ProPublica has documented greater than 170 circumstances of U.S. residents, principally Latinos, being detained at raids and protests since January.
Individuals have been tackled, tased, overwhelmed and shot by immigration authorities. Some residents have been held with out entry to counsel or the power to name their family members. They embrace a 79-year-old man who was body-slammed to the bottom by brokers in Van Nuys, an Army veteran in Camarillo who was tear-gassed earlier than being thrown in detention for 3 days, and a Cal Poly Pomona grad who was knocked down by brokers and spent two nights in jail.
There are doubtless many more cases of U.S. residents held by immigration authorities that haven’t come to mild. The precise numbers are unknown as a result of the federal government does not release statistics about such encounters.
ICE insurance policies state that “as a matter of regulation, ICE can not assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest and/or detain U.S. residents.” These same guidelines say that brokers are speculated to “fastidiously and expeditiously examine” citizenship claims and to “deal with these issues with the utmost care and highest precedence.”
Clearly, brokers aren’t following this steering for coping with residents. An Alabama man was detained twice by ICE, regardless of having a REAL ID card on him. Figueroa, the Chicago girl dragged from her automobile, was zip-tied and arrested by brokers who refused to believe that her passport was actual. These individuals have been carrying legitimate proof of their citizenship — and have been detained anyway.
The wrongful arrest of U.S. residents by immigration brokers will not be new; it occurred underneath Presidents Biden and Obama, and through President Trump’s first term. What’s new is that Homeland Safety and ICE are dramatically ramping up enforcement actions, whereas working with much less oversight than up to now. This has resulted in better potential for errors — and for extra traumatized or injured Individuals.
The federal government denies that these episodes are occurring. “There’s no Americans which have been arrested or detained,” Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem said in October. “We concentrate on these which are right here illegally.” Any proof on the contrary, she asserted, was “merely not true.” Noem’s declare was rated “Pants on Hearth!” by the website Politifact. It is also contradicted by Homeland Safety press releases explaining why some residents have been arrested or detained.
When residents are arrested by immigration brokers, it’s steadily on the grounds of assaulting or impeding officers. The ProPublica report, nevertheless, discovered that such prices typically have been dismissed later or dropped. That’s what occurred to Figueroa in Chicago. A Homeland Safety spokesperson known as her “an agitator” who was arrested “for assault on a federal agent.” But as soon as Figueroa was launched from detention, no prices have been filed in opposition to her.
A current Supreme Court ruling permits immigration brokers to make use of elements together with race, ethnicity and language as grounds for stopping individuals who they believe of being within the nation illegally. However this resolution will not be a license for ICE to harass, assault or abuse residents. All Individuals nonetheless have the appropriate to due course of, to equal safety underneath the regulation and to be free from unlawful search and seizures underneath the 4th Modification.
Democratic lawmakers are proper to demand more scrutiny of ICE actions. Immigration brokers have to be sure that they’re appearing inside their jurisdiction earlier than detaining any particular person, and they need to be higher educated to deal with encounters involving residents. The federal government ought to observe statistics on such incidents. These proposals aren’t unreasonable; underneath the spending invoice signed in July, ICE has more than $28 billion at its disposal for this yr alone.
At stake right here aren’t solely the rights of U.S. residents but in addition belief in federal regulation enforcement. An October YouGov poll discovered that 60% of Individuals imagine that ICE is arresting residents “Typically” or “Generally.” It is a low vote of confidence for an company that’s already unpopular with the general public.
ICE practices endanger the security, due course of and civil liberties of U.S. residents. The illegal arrests and detention of Individuals should finish.
Raul A. Reyes is an immigration lawyer and contributor to NBC Latino and CNN Opinion. X: @RaulAReyes; Instagram: @raulareyes1
Insights
L.A. Times Insights delivers AI-generated evaluation on Voices content material to supply all factors of view. Insights doesn’t seem on any information articles.
Viewpoint
Views
The next AI-generated content material is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Occasions editorial workers doesn’t create or edit the content material.
Concepts expressed within the piece
-
ProPublica has documented greater than 170 circumstances of U.S. residents detained by immigration brokers throughout raids and protests in 2025, with residents experiencing bodily violence together with being tasered, overwhelmed and shot[3]. Residents carrying legitimate identification similar to passports have been detained regardless of proving their citizenship[3], and greater than 20 residents have been held incommunicado with out entry to authorized counsel or the power to contact relations[3].
-
Enforcement actions have expanded dramatically with roughly 204,000 arrests made between October 2024 and June 2025, but round 65 p.c of detainees had no legal information[2]. Prices introduced in opposition to detained residents are steadily dismissed or dropped after their launch[3], suggesting that detention selections might not face up to authorized scrutiny.
-
ICE insurance policies explicitly prohibit the detention of U.S. residents, but these pointers aren’t being adopted in present enforcement operations[3].
Completely different views on the subject
-
Brokers have characterised detentions of Americans as justified responses to interference with federal operations or assault on officers, though roughly 130 such prices in opposition to Americans have been subsequently dismissed or dropped[3].
-
The Trump administration has prioritized immigration enforcement as a coverage goal, allocating $45 billion for detention operations and $30 billion for enforcement actions[1]. This enforcement dedication is mirrored in immigration detention reaching file ranges of 61,200 individuals as of August 2025[1], the best quantity ever recorded, and the administration’s growth of detention infrastructure by opening 59 new amenities[1].
