ICE accused of racial profiling in detentions of Latino U.S. citizens
Why it matters: U.S. citizens aren't supposed to be arrested or detained unless agents allege they're breaking laws. But reports of citizens of Latino descent being detained — or stopped and asked to prove citizenship — are rippling through Latino communities nationwide.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hasn't released statistics on such detentions in months. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, told Axios that recent reports of citizens wrongly being arrested are false — and that "the media is shamefully peddling a false narrative" to demonize ICE agents.
But an Axios review of news reports, social media videos and claims by advocacy groups about raids since President Trump took office found several instances in which U.S. citizens alleged they were wrongfully detained — in one case, for 10 days in immigration detention.
The big picture: The allegations come as ICE continues raids in mostly Latino communities in the Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego areas, cities in Texas, New Mexico, New York and Florida, and agricultural centers such as Central California.
State of play: In May, ICE briefly detained Florida-born Leonardo Garcia Venegas from his job at a construction site in Foley, Ala. Agents alleged that Garcia's Real ID was fake, according to Noticias Telemundo. He alleged agents forced him to his knees and handcuffed him.
Immigration officials held U.S. citizen and Albuquerque resident Jose Hermosillo for 10 days in Arizona's Florence Correctional Center after arresting him, and didn't believe him when he said he was a citizen, per Arizona Public Media.
Last month, ICE briefly detained U.S. citizen Elzon Lemus, an electrician from Brentwood, N.Y., during a traffic stop after agents told Lemus he "looked like" someone they were looking for, CBS News first reported.
Also in June, plain clothes ICE agents momentarily detained East Los Angeles-born Jason Brian Gavidia outside an auto body shop in Montebello, Calif., and demanded he tell them where he was born. "I'm an American, bro!" a witness recording him saying.
Gavidia told The New York Times he believed his encounter with ICE was because he was Latino, and that other U.S. Latinos are experiencing similar scrutiny.
In California, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) says it plans to file a $1 million federal lawsuit accusing ICE of assaulting and unlawfully detaining a U.S. citizen in front of a Home Depot in Hollywood.
MALDEF is representing Job Garcia, a photographer who was detained last month while recording video of Border Patrol and ICE agents conducting a raid outside the Home Depot.
Federal agents held Garcia in detention for 24 hours despite having confirmed he was a U.S. citizen with no criminal warrants or any reason to suspect he'd committed a crime, MALDEF alleges.
DHS's McLaughlin said Garcia assaulted and verbally harassed a Border Patrol agent. "He was subdued and arrested for assault on a federal agent," she said.
MALDEF and other civil rights groups say they don't know how many U.S. citizens have been wrongly detained by ICE or the Border Patrol during Trump's immigration crackdown.
Guadalupe Gonzalez of the LA-based Immigrant Defenders Law Center told Axios she knew of at least five cases of U.S. citizens in Southern California being detained by ICE in recent weeks.
The DHS's McLaughlin said some of the U.S. citizens detained were interfering with immigration enforcement operations — claims that advocates dispute.
"DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted and are not resulting in the arrest of U.S. citizens," McLaughlin said. "We do our due diligence."
What they're saying: "Let's just call it what it is. This is racial discrimination," said Mario Trujillo, a City Council member in Downey, Calif.
Trujillo said Downey — a prosperous community of 110,000 known as the "Mexican Beverly Hills" because about 75% of its population is Latino — has seen several ICE raids recently. Now many Mexican Americans there carry their passports, just in case, she said.
"Reports of American citizens detained by ICE purely based on their race are wholly unacceptable and run afoul of our Fourth Amendment rights," U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) told Axios.
"No one should feel unsafe because of the color of their skin, but in Donald Trump's America — where indiscriminate immigration raids are commonplace — this is the stark reality," he added.
The other side: "Any claims that individuals have been 'targeted' by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE," McLaughlin wrote in an email to Axios.
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