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 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.
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. “[Her statement] 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. [Figueroa was never charged.]