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I\u2019m literally a U.S. citizen.\u201d An employee at Target is detained in January 2026 in Richfield, Minnesota. Video credit: Bring Me The News Experts have long warned that immigration dragnets and the erosion of civil rights for immigrants will inevitably result in the erosion of rights for citizens. \u201cI\u2019m a U.S. citizen, please help me.\u201d A woman is detained for the third time in Key Largo, Florida, while driving a car registered to her partner, an immigrant. Video credit: Miami Herald Since the start of this Trump administration, we\u2019ve watched those warnings come true. This story contains videos and descriptions of violent arrests. Click to\n disable\n videos. The Trump administration says none of this is happening.\u201cDHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.\u201d \u201cThere are no \u2018indiscriminate\u2019 stops.\u201d Allegations of \u201cracial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.\u201d \u201cThe pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.\u201d \u201cICE does not zip tie or restrain children.\u201dBut that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported.We know because we have once again done what the government hasn\u2019t:We have tallied and cataloged every case we can find of an immigration agent holding a citizen during the current administration. More than 500 cases. That includes:More than a hundred Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.At least 70 American children and teens detained, some of whom were handcuffed.Of the more than 300 Americans we tracked as detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, we found fewer than half were actually charged in federal court, and many of those cases were dropped or dismissed. At least 63 Americans detained while recording.36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.Roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.Collectively, these cases show that as the administration has relentlessly pursued immigrants, federal agents have run roughshod over the constitutional rights of citizens too.We\u2019re showing you every case \u2014 the reality that the administration denies \u2014 along with the receipts. Each box represents a detained citizen. Jun 2025 A Southern California enforcement operation starts on June 6 Sep 2025 Operation Midway Blitz starts on Sept. 8 in Illinois Dec 2025 Operation Metro Surge starts on Dec. 1 in the Minnesota In January 2025, agents held a 21-year-old citizen at gunpoint and put him in handcuffs during a raid at the Philadelphia car wash where he worked.In April, a 20-year-old was held in a Florida jail for more than 24 hours, despite having proof of his citizenship.In June, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S. was detained while working in California. He was held for four days without access to a lawyer or his family.During the enforcement surge in Chicago last fall, known as Operation Midway Blitz, there were \u201cno administrative arrests of U.S. citizens,\u201d according to the Department of Homeland Security. \u201cICE has significant protections in place to ensure U.S. citizens are not arrested, detained, or mistakenly removed.\u201d But we found that federal agents detained more than 120 citizens in Illinois during the height of the surge.In November, agents took an 18-year-old citizen off the street, eventually dumping him in the woods.In December, an American in Baltimore was picked up and held for 25 days, unable to see her 5-year-old son over Christmas.In January, hours after Renee Good\u2019s killing, agents tackled and handcuffed a school staffer in Minneapolis. He was terrified, he recalled: \u201cI feel lucky to be alive.\u201dIn April, when agents stopped a man in Texas, he told them, \u201cI\u2019m a citizen, it\u2019s fine.\u201d He was deported four days later.In May, a New York teen was thrown to the ground, bloodied and then dumped in an unfamiliar neighborhood. \u201cHe just grabbed me and threw me on the floor,\u201d the teen recalled.In September, agents detained and injured an Illinois man they thought was someone else. We shared details and footage of many of the incidents with former immigration officials. They reacted with anger and disbelief.\u201cThis is just terrible,\u201d said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, both agencies under DHS, including in President Donald Trump\u2019s first administration.\u201cI've never seen so many U.S. citizen encounters in all my years,\u201d said Darius Reeves, who oversaw the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency\u2019s Baltimore office before retiring last year. \u201cIt\u2019s an embarrassment.\u201d Do you have information or footage to share related to the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown? In tallying these detentions, we included anyone who authorities held against their will for any period of time \u2014 whether they were handcuffed, held at gunpoint or otherwise prevented from leaving by immigration agents. The courts consider someone detained if they aren\u2019t free to leave.Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances: if they can reasonably suspect they are in the country illegally, or if they allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers.ProPublica shared its findings and information on each case with DHS. The department defended agents\u2019 conduct. \u201cDHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence,\u201d the agency said in a statement. It added that anyone who obstructs agents \u201cwill of course face consequences which include arrest.\u201d Explore our list of incidents where citizens were detained. Jump to list We compiled our list by scouring social media, court records and local media to confirm and compile incidents.Our work doesn\u2019t include all of agents\u2019 problematic interactions with citizens. We didn\u2019t count incidents where, say, an agent shot but didn\u2019t detain a citizen. And as with the tally we did last year, the new list is an undercount. For instance, witnesses estimate that more than 200 citizens were detained in an Idaho raid last fall, but we only included the 30 citizens who we were able to identify. Willy Wender Aceituno, a naturalized citizen who voted for Trump twice, said he never imagined that the immigration crackdown he supported would entangle him.Then, last November, Border Patrol agents broke his truck window, yanked Aceituno out and threw him onto the pavement of a parking lot, where one agent knelt on his back. (DHS says he \u201crefused to comply\u201d with agents\u2019 commands.)\u201cICE isn\u2019t looking for criminals,\u201d Aceituno said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking for Latinos. Having papers in this country does not protect you.\u201d \u201cUpon Probable Cause\u201d Under the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement generally must have probable cause to arrest someone. But there\u2019s a lower bar, reasonable suspicion, for stopping someone to question them.The Trump administration has repeatedly said its agents are just questioning citizens, not detaining them \u2014 even when they\u2019re in handcuffs or held for hours. DHS also cites a concurring opinion issued last year by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh stating that agents can consider factors like \u201capparent ethnicity\u201d when making stops. Citizens around the country have been detained because, they\u2019ve said, of their skin color, accents or jobs. Ever since his arrest in November, Aceituno said his U.S.-born daughter carries her passport at college. \u201cShe has a Latino face,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMy daughter\u2019s white friends aren\u2019t carrying their passports.\u201d\u201cSecure in Their Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects\u201d The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution also prohibits officers from entering homes without a judge\u2019s warrant.An ICE memo revealed by a whistleblower this year showed that agents had been doing it anyway. The agency asserted that administrative warrants that didn't involve a judge gave agents the ostensible authority to force their way into homes looking for someone with a final deportation order. Some of those incidents have also resulted in Americans being detained. In January, Jeyli Salguero, her parents and her sister were asleep at home when armed federal agents broke through the front door and rushed inside. \u201cThe first thing I yelled when I stepped out of my room was that I was a U.S. citizen and I had the right to record,\u201d Salguero recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s when they snatched my phone.\u201d The agents told Salguero\u2019s family they were looking for her brother, who does not live there. After half an hour, the agents released Salguero and her mother, but detained her father, who had temporary protected status, and her sister, who was undocumented. The sister was eventually deported to El Salvador, and her father was later released from detention. Salguero told us that agents left her and her mom alone in their wrecked house with the Minneapolis winter air coming in through a broken door. Salguero is one of several plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against the government for going into homes without a judicial warrant. DHS has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it has \u201cpaused\u201d the policy.\u201cAgainst Unreasonable Searches and Seizures\u201d The Fourth Amendment is also intended to protect people from \u201cunreasonable\u201d use of force during arrests. Previously, we\u2019ve documented how agents have used chokeholds that DHS banned other than when deadly force is authorized. We\u2019ve also documented how immigration agents have broken car windows while pursuing people they believe are in the country illegally. But they\u2019ve been doing it to citizens, too. Many of those citizens have filed lawsuits. Darren Eichler was working at a Christian cemetery in a Chicago suburb last October when he and his coworkers moved to help a man who was wading in the nearby river. They soon realized \u2014 too late \u2014 that the man was running from immigration agents, who emerged from the brush near the river and demanded access to a gated area of the cemetery. When the men refused and started filming, agents used bolt cutters to cut open the gate, then fired pepper balls and tackled the men.Explore incidents where citizens were subjected to crowd control weapons. Jump to list Eichler said his face felt like it was on fire and he had trouble breathing. \u201cI pleaded with them for an hour to please call an ambulance.\u201d Eichler told ProPublica. He was eventually brought to a hospital, still handcuffed, while the agents stood over his bed. Eichler\u2019s co-workers were held for several hours at a nearby federal office. No one was charged. DHS did not respond to ProPublica\u2019s request for comment about the incident.\u201cThe Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble\u201d The First Amendment protects protesters and those documenting agents\u2019 conduct. The amendment guarantees the freedom to assemble \u2014 in other words, to protest peacefully \u2014 and the freedom of speech, which courts have interpreted to include recording in public.The Trump administration has, however, aggressively pursued the arrest and prosecution of citizens who were protesting, often claiming the protesters were assaulting officers or interfering with enforcement activities. We counted more than 300 people accused of assaulting or obstructing officers, about 130 of them at protests.Top DHS officials, including former Secretary Kristi Noem, went further, claiming that filming ICE agents was interfering with arrests. Last summer, three siblings driving in Texas were detained after they stopped to film an immigration arrest. One of the siblings was a young teen. \u201cThey tackled me down and an agent put one knee behind my knee, where I felt a sharp pain,\u201d he told ProPublica. He was separated from his mother, who has a green card. \u201cThey were saying my mom wasn\u2019t a U.S. citizen, and I was scared they were gonna take her away.\u201dThe siblings have filed claims for damages with the government. Asked about the incident, DHS said it respects \u201cthe First Amendment rights of individuals to observe and express themselves. However, if such actions interfere with or obstruct our operations, ICE will take necessary steps to address the situation.\u201d Our review did uncover instances that appear to show some protesters or other civilians assaulting officers. One person pleaded guilty to throwing pieces of cinder block at an agent. A woman in California pleaded guilty to pulling off an officer\u2019s mask. Many protesters were accused of crimes but never actually charged. We found 137 instances of citizens who were charged with federal crimes, most of whom were charged with assaulting or obstructing federal agents. In nearly half of those instances, the charges were dropped or dismissed. Three dozen citizens have been sentenced to prison or probation, and another three dozen cases are pending, as of September 15.Explore incidents where citizens were detained while recording. Jump to list Some of those arrested, like clarinet player Oriana Korol, were initially charged with felony assault before pleading guilty to a misdemeanor \u2014 in Korol\u2019s case, for trying to kick an officer. She said she did so after officers shoved her and pepper-sprayed her twice in the face. Just moments before, the band had been playing the \u201cGhostbusters\u201d theme song as part of a peaceful protest. Video footage shows agents leading Korol away, handcuffed, while one pulls her tear-gas-soaked mask over her mouth. \u201cPlease pull it down,\u201d Korol tells the agents in the video. \u201cI\u2019m going to have an asthma attack. I have asthma. Why are you doing this to me? Please.\u201dThe Rights of Children Unlike earlier administrations, Trump has detained significant numbers of immigrant children living far from the border. Citizen kids have been swept up too \u2014 at least 70 of them. We\u2019ve found about 20 kids who were handcuffed or zip-tied.DHS said that ICE doesn\u2019t zip-tie or restrain children, or separate families. But agents handcuffed a 15-year-old with disabilities outside a school in Los Angeles in 2025. The agents said they mistook the teen for an alleged gang member. A few months later, officers detained more than a dozen American children during a raid on an Idaho horse track. Anabel Romero said her children are still deeply shaken by their detention.Romero told us how her 7-year-old son warned his older sister about going to another race this month: \u201cHe said, \u2018Watch out for ICE, make sure you have your phone to film \u2014 I\u2019ll come save you.\u2019\u201d \u201cWithout Due Process of Law\u201d As the government has rushed to deport people as quickly as possible, Americans have also been swept up and removed from the country too. About a dozen American kids have been deported with their parents, allegedly over their parents\u2019 objections.DHS said: \u201cParents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.\u201dOne American adult in Texas was also deported this spring.The car Brian Morales Garcia was in was pulled over earlier this year in central Texas. Officers didn\u2019t believe him when he said he was a citizen. And they wouldn\u2019t let him get his birth certificate. Morales Garcia was held for four days without being able to call his lawyer or anyone else. Then he was deported to Mexico.After suing, Morales Garcia was allowed back into the country just last month using his birth certificate.DHS did not respond to ProPublica\u2019s questions about Morales Garcia\u2019s deportation. In earlier court filings, officials disputed Morales Garcia\u2019s citizenship and claimed he had admitted to being born in Mexico.\u201cI couldn\u2019t process what they were doing to me.\u201d Morales Garcia told ProPublica. When he was first stopped in Texas, he had told officers, \u201cI\u2019m a citizen, it\u2019s fine.\u201d Explore All Incidents Where Citizens Were Detained This is every incident ProPublica could find in which one or more citizens were reportedly detained between January 2025 and September 2026. We asked DHS about each incident. We searched for any federal criminal charges that were brought in relation to each incident and included the most up-to-date status we could find for those cases. 506\n citizens\n One citizen was injured and detained by ICE agents who were looking for someone who matched his description in Evanston, Illinois. A responding Evanston police officer said one agent had blood on his hands and the citizen was taken to the hospital. DHS claimed the man didn\u2019t cooperate with \u201clawful commands\u201d and agents detained him until he identified himself. A citizen leaving a coffee shop in Annapolis, Maryland, was handcuffed, denied a phone call and held for almost two hours. DHS said it took the citizen to another location to interview him because \u201cagitators\u201d had gathered. telemundowashingtondc.com A citizen documenting ICE activity in Ventura, California, was tackled and tasered while he was already pinned to the ground. instagram.comlataco.com One\n citizen\n was\n detained in\n Newark, New Jersey. facebook.com One\n citizen\n was\n detained in\n Newark, New Jersey. nytimes.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791310528.764098", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-06T19:15:37.811009+00:00", "status": "succeeded" }, { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmpw23kitlw", "https://projects.propublica.org/american-citizens-detained-dhs-civil-rights/" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-10-06T19:19:07.579491+00:00", "index_texts": [ "\u201cI\u2019m literally a U.S. citizen. I\u2019m literally a U.S. citizen.\u201d An employee at Target is detained in January 2026 in Richfield, Minnesota. Video credit: Bring Me The News Experts have long warned that immigration dragnets and the erosion of civil rights for immigrants will inevitably result in the erosion of rights for citizens. \u201cI\u2019m a U.S. citizen, please help me.\u201d A woman is detained for the third time in Key Largo, Florida, while driving a car registered to her partner, an immigrant. Video credit: Miami Herald Since the start of this Trump administration, we\u2019ve watched those warnings come true. This story contains videos and descriptions of violent arrests. Click to\n disable\n videos. The Trump administration says none of this is happening.\u201cDHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.\u201d \u201cThere are no \u2018indiscriminate\u2019 stops.\u201d Allegations of \u201cracial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.\u201d \u201cThe pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.\u201d \u201cICE does not zip tie or restrain children.\u201dBut that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported.We know because we have once again done what the government hasn\u2019t:We have tallied and cataloged every case we can find of an immigration agent holding a citizen during the current administration. More than 500 cases. That includes:More than a hundred Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.At least 70 American children and teens detained, some of whom were handcuffed.Of the more than 300 Americans we tracked as detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, we found fewer than half were actually charged in federal court, and many of those cases were dropped or dismissed. At least 63 Americans detained while recording.36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.Roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.Collectively, these cases show that as the administration has relentlessly pursued immigrants, federal agents have run roughshod over the constitutional rights of citizens too.We\u2019re showing you every case \u2014 the reality that the administration denies \u2014 along with the receipts. Each box represents a detained citizen. Jun 2025 A Southern California enforcement operation starts on June 6 Sep 2025 Operation Midway Blitz starts on Sept. 8 in Illinois Dec 2025 Operation Metro Surge starts on Dec. 1 in the Minnesota In January 2025, agents held a 21-year-old citizen at gunpoint and put him in handcuffs during a raid at the Philadelphia car wash where he worked.In April, a 20-year-old was held in a Florida jail for more than 24 hours, despite having proof of his citizenship.In June, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S. was detained while working in California. He was held for four days without access to a lawyer or his family.During the enforcement surge in Chicago last fall, known as Operation Midway Blitz, there were \u201cno administrative arrests of U.S. citizens,\u201d according to the Department of Homeland Security. \u201cICE has significant protections in place to ensure U.S. citizens are not arrested, detained, or mistakenly removed.\u201d But we found that federal agents detained more than 120 citizens in Illinois during the height of the surge.In November, agents took an 18-year-old citizen off the street, eventually dumping him in the woods.In December, an American in Baltimore was picked up and held for 25 days, unable to see her 5-year-old son over Christmas.In January, hours after Renee Good\u2019s killing, agents tackled and handcuffed a school staffer in Minneapolis. He was terrified, he recalled: \u201cI feel lucky to be alive.\u201dIn April, when agents stopped a man in Texas, he told them, \u201cI\u2019m a citizen, it\u2019s fine.\u201d He was deported four days later.In May, a New York teen was thrown to the ground, bloodied and then dumped in an unfamiliar neighborhood. \u201cHe just grabbed me and threw me on the floor,\u201d the teen recalled.In September, agents detained and injured an Illinois man they thought was someone else. We shared details and footage of many of the incidents with former immigration officials. They reacted with anger and disbelief.\u201cThis is just terrible,\u201d said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, both agencies under DHS, including in President Donald Trump\u2019s first administration.\u201cI've never seen so many U.S. citizen encounters in all my years,\u201d said Darius Reeves, who oversaw the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency\u2019s Baltimore office before retiring last year. \u201cIt\u2019s an embarrassment.\u201d Do you have information or footage to share related to the administration\u2019s immigration crackdown? In tallying these detentions, we included anyone who authorities held against their will for any period of time \u2014 whether they were handcuffed, held at gunpoint or otherwise prevented from leaving by immigration agents. The courts consider someone detained if they aren\u2019t free to leave.Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances: if they can reasonably suspect they are in the country illegally, or if they allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers.ProPublica shared its findings and information on each case with DHS. The department defended agents\u2019 conduct. \u201cDHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence,\u201d the agency said in a statement. It added that anyone who obstructs agents \u201cwill of course face consequences which include arrest.\u201d Explore our list of incidents where citizens were detained. Jump to list We compiled our list by scouring social media, court records and local media to confirm and compile incidents.Our work doesn\u2019t include all of agents\u2019 problematic interactions with citizens. We didn\u2019t count incidents where, say, an agent shot but didn\u2019t detain a citizen. And as with the tally we did last year, the new list is an undercount. For instance, witnesses estimate that more than 200 citizens were detained in an Idaho raid last fall, but we only included the 30 citizens who we were able to identify. Willy Wender Aceituno, a naturalized citizen who voted for Trump twice, said he never imagined that the immigration crackdown he supported would entangle him.Then, last November, Border Patrol agents broke his truck window, yanked Aceituno out and threw him onto the pavement of a parking lot, where one agent knelt on his back. (DHS says he \u201crefused to comply\u201d with agents\u2019 commands.)\u201cICE isn\u2019t looking for criminals,\u201d Aceituno said. \u201cThey\u2019re looking for Latinos. Having papers in this country does not protect you.\u201d \u201cUpon Probable Cause\u201d Under the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement generally must have probable cause to arrest someone. But there\u2019s a lower bar, reasonable suspicion, for stopping someone to question them.The Trump administration has repeatedly said its agents are just questioning citizens, not detaining them \u2014 even when they\u2019re in handcuffs or held for hours. DHS also cites a concurring opinion issued last year by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh stating that agents can consider factors like \u201capparent ethnicity\u201d when making stops. Citizens around the country have been detained because, they\u2019ve said, of their skin color, accents or jobs. Ever since his arrest in November, Aceituno said his U.S.-born daughter carries her passport at college. \u201cShe has a Latino face,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cMy daughter\u2019s white friends aren\u2019t carrying their passports.\u201d\u201cSecure in Their Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects\u201d The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution also prohibits officers from entering homes without a judge\u2019s warrant.An ICE memo revealed by a whistleblower this year showed that agents had been doing it anyway. The agency asserted that administrative warrants that didn't involve a judge gave agents the ostensible authority to force their way into homes looking for someone with a final deportation order. Some of those incidents have also resulted in Americans being detained. In January, Jeyli Salguero, her parents and her sister were asleep at home when armed federal agents broke through the front door and rushed inside. \u201cThe first thing I yelled when I stepped out of my room was that I was a U.S. citizen and I had the right to record,\u201d Salguero recalled. \u201cThat\u2019s when they snatched my phone.\u201d The agents told Salguero\u2019s family they were looking for her brother, who does not live there. After half an hour, the agents released Salguero and her mother, but detained her father, who had temporary protected status, and her sister, who was undocumented. The sister was eventually deported to El Salvador, and her father was later released from detention. Salguero told us that agents left her and her mom alone in their wrecked house with the Minneapolis winter air coming in through a broken door. Salguero is one of several plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against the government for going into homes without a judicial warrant. DHS has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it has \u201cpaused\u201d the policy.\u201cAgainst Unreasonable Searches and Seizures\u201d The Fourth Amendment is also intended to protect people from \u201cunreasonable\u201d use of force during arrests. Previously, we\u2019ve documented how agents have used chokeholds that DHS banned other than when deadly force is authorized. We\u2019ve also documented how immigration agents have broken car windows while pursuing people they believe are in the country illegally. But they\u2019ve been doing it to citizens, too. Many of those citizens have filed lawsuits. Darren Eichler was working at a Christian cemetery in a Chicago suburb last October when he and his coworkers moved to help a man who was wading in the nearby river. They soon realized \u2014 too late \u2014 that the man was running from immigration agents, who emerged from the brush near the river and demanded access to a gated area of the cemetery. When the men refused and started filming, agents used bolt cutters to cut open the gate, then fired pepper balls and tackled the men.Explore incidents where citizens were subjected to crowd control weapons. Jump to list Eichler said his face felt like it was on fire and he had trouble breathing. \u201cI pleaded with them for an hour to please call an ambulance.\u201d Eichler told ProPublica. He was eventually brought to a hospital, still handcuffed, while the agents stood over his bed. Eichler\u2019s co-workers were held for several hours at a nearby federal office. No one was charged. DHS did not respond to ProPublica\u2019s request for comment about the incident.\u201cThe Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble\u201d The First Amendment protects protesters and those documenting agents\u2019 conduct. The amendment guarantees the freedom to assemble \u2014 in other words, to protest peacefully \u2014 and the freedom of speech, which courts have interpreted to include recording in public.The Trump administration has, however, aggressively pursued the arrest and prosecution of citizens who were protesting, often claiming the protesters were assaulting officers or interfering with enforcement activities. We counted more than 300 people accused of assaulting or obstructing officers, about 130 of them at protests.Top DHS officials, including former Secretary Kristi Noem, went further, claiming that filming ICE agents was interfering with arrests. Last summer, three siblings driving in Texas were detained after they stopped to film an immigration arrest. One of the siblings was a young teen. \u201cThey tackled me down and an agent put one knee behind my knee, where I felt a sharp pain,\u201d he told ProPublica. He was separated from his mother, who has a green card. \u201cThey were saying my mom wasn\u2019t a U.S. citizen, and I was scared they were gonna take her away.\u201dThe siblings have filed claims for damages with the government. Asked about the incident, DHS said it respects \u201cthe First Amendment rights of individuals to observe and express themselves. However, if such actions interfere with or obstruct our operations, ICE will take necessary steps to address the situation.\u201d Our review did uncover instances that appear to show some protesters or other civilians assaulting officers. One person pleaded guilty to throwing pieces of cinder block at an agent. A woman in California pleaded guilty to pulling off an officer\u2019s mask. Many protesters were accused of crimes but never actually charged. We found 137 instances of citizens who were charged with federal crimes, most of whom were charged with assaulting or obstructing federal agents. In nearly half of those instances, the charges were dropped or dismissed. Three dozen citizens have been sentenced to prison or probation, and another three dozen cases are pending, as of September 15.Explore incidents where citizens were detained while recording. Jump to list Some of those arrested, like clarinet player Oriana Korol, were initially charged with felony assault before pleading guilty to a misdemeanor \u2014 in Korol\u2019s case, for trying to kick an officer. She said she did so after officers shoved her and pepper-sprayed her twice in the face. Just moments before, the band had been playing the \u201cGhostbusters\u201d theme song as part of a peaceful protest. Video footage shows agents leading Korol away, handcuffed, while one pulls her tear-gas-soaked mask over her mouth. \u201cPlease pull it down,\u201d Korol tells the agents in the video. \u201cI\u2019m going to have an asthma attack. I have asthma. Why are you doing this to me? Please.\u201dThe Rights of Children Unlike earlier administrations, Trump has detained significant numbers of immigrant children living far from the border. Citizen kids have been swept up too \u2014 at least 70 of them. We\u2019ve found about 20 kids who were handcuffed or zip-tied.DHS said that ICE doesn\u2019t zip-tie or restrain children, or separate families. But agents handcuffed a 15-year-old with disabilities outside a school in Los Angeles in 2025. The agents said they mistook the teen for an alleged gang member. A few months later, officers detained more than a dozen American children during a raid on an Idaho horse track. Anabel Romero said her children are still deeply shaken by their detention.Romero told us how her 7-year-old son warned his older sister about going to another race this month: \u201cHe said, \u2018Watch out for ICE, make sure you have your phone to film \u2014 I\u2019ll come save you.\u2019\u201d \u201cWithout Due Process of Law\u201d As the government has rushed to deport people as quickly as possible, Americans have also been swept up and removed from the country too. About a dozen American kids have been deported with their parents, allegedly over their parents\u2019 objections.DHS said: \u201cParents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.\u201dOne American adult in Texas was also deported this spring.The car Brian Morales Garcia was in was pulled over earlier this year in central Texas. Officers didn\u2019t believe him when he said he was a citizen. And they wouldn\u2019t let him get his birth certificate. Morales Garcia was held for four days without being able to call his lawyer or anyone else. Then he was deported to Mexico.After suing, Morales Garcia was allowed back into the country just last month using his birth certificate.DHS did not respond to ProPublica\u2019s questions about Morales Garcia\u2019s deportation. In earlier court filings, officials disputed Morales Garcia\u2019s citizenship and claimed he had admitted to being born in Mexico.\u201cI couldn\u2019t process what they were doing to me.\u201d Morales Garcia told ProPublica. When he was first stopped in Texas, he had told officers, \u201cI\u2019m a citizen, it\u2019s fine.\u201d Explore All Incidents Where Citizens Were Detained This is every incident ProPublica could find in which one or more citizens were reportedly detained between January 2025 and September 2026. We asked DHS about each incident. We searched for any federal criminal charges that were brought in relation to each incident and included the most up-to-date status we could find for those cases. 506\n citizens\n One citizen was injured and detained by ICE agents who were looking for someone who matched his description in Evanston, Illinois. A responding Evanston police officer said one agent had blood on his hands and the citizen was taken to the hospital. DHS claimed the man didn\u2019t cooperate with \u201clawful commands\u201d and agents detained him until he identified himself. A citizen leaving a coffee shop in Annapolis, Maryland, was handcuffed, denied a phone call and held for almost two hours. DHS said it took the citizen to another location to interview him because \u201cagitators\u201d had gathered. telemundowashingtondc.com A citizen documenting ICE activity in Ventura, California, was tackled and tasered while he was already pinned to the ground. instagram.comlataco.com One\n citizen\n was\n detained in\n Newark, New Jersey. facebook.com One\n citizen\n was\n detained in\n Newark, New Jersey. nytimes.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791310528.764098", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-06T19:19:03.873520+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://projects.propublica.org/american-citizens-detained-dhs-civil-rights/" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-10-06T19:15:37.802683+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "Federal Agents Have Detained More Than 500 American Citizens in Trump\u2019s Immigration Crackdown \u2014 ProPublica", "pwd": "/data/archive/1791310528.764098", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-10-06T19:15:37.709305+00:00", "status": "succeeded" }, { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; 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