Trump's Immigration Agents Detained 506 Citizens, ProPublica Found. His Administration Says DHS Arrests None by Mistake.

The Administration Denied Mistakes. Citizens Described Them.

On May 2, 2026, immigration officers followed Leonardo Garcia Venegas, a Florida-born construction worker, to his home in Alabama, pulled him from his truck, tackled him and restrained his arms and legs without asking a question or looking at the REAL ID in his hand, he told a federal court two days later.¹² By his account it was his third immigration detention in less than a year, and he was already suing the government over the first two.¹²

ProPublica reported on October 6 that federal agents carrying out Trump's immigration campaign detained 506 American citizens between January 2025 and September 2026.³ Citizens lost their freedom, work time and physical safety in a campaign Trump ordered to protect Americans.²⁴⁵ The Trump administration's answer, as ProPublica reproduced it:³

Administration denial reproduced in ProPublica's October 6, 2026 investigation³

DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.

The campaign is Trump's: he ordered it.⁵ The Alabama court also recounted Garcia Venegas's allegation that DHS adopted the three challenged policies under White House and border czar Tom Homan directives to raise immigration arrests to at least 3,000 a day.² On inauguration day, January 20, 2025, he signed an executive order setting a policy "to achieve the total and efficient enforcement" of the immigration laws against inadmissible and removable immigrants, with nationwide task forces and expanded detention, by "all lawful means."⁵²

What 506 Measures

The government does not track these cases, ProPublica said, so it counted any citizen held against their will for any length of time, on at least two sources per incident and one for some details.³ It left out judicial-warrant arrests, border and airport encounters, and shootings without a detention (see the [shooting cases](deaths.article.html)).³ The total counts detentions; it is not a judgment that each one was unlawful.³ ProPublica called it almost certainly an undercount: ICE told Congress that 131 citizens were arrested in 2026 for assaulting, obstructing or interfering in Minnesota's Metro Surge, and reporters could catalog fewer than 100.³

ProPublica found more than 100 citizens held after agents questioned their citizenship, nearly all of them people of color.³ At least 70 of the detained citizens were children or teenagers, at least 63 were detained while recording, and 36 were held at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.³ The groups overlap.³

DHS says ICE does not zip-tie or restrain children; ProPublica found about 20 citizen children handcuffed or zip-tied.³ Its examples included a 15-year-old with disabilities handcuffed outside a Los Angeles school in 2025; agents said they mistook the teenager for an alleged gang member.³

ProPublica found more than 300 citizens detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, fewer than half of them charged in federal court; of 137 citizens charged with federal crimes, nearly half saw the charges dropped or dismissed.³

ProPublica also reported that top DHS officials, including former Secretary Kristi Noem, claimed that filming ICE agents interfered with arrests.³

ProPublica also reported roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.³ It reported that Brian Morales Garcia, an American adult, was held four days without a call to his lawyer or anyone else, then deported to Mexico; after he sued, he was allowed back in September using his birth certificate.³

One Citizen, Three Detentions

Garcia Venegas carries an Alabama REAL ID.² On May 21, 2025, he alleged in his lawsuit, officers told him the ID was fake, handcuffed him and held him for over an hour.² He said he needed nearly two weeks off work to recover.² On June 12, he said, officers detained him again.² Neither detention produced a criminal charge.²

In the third detention, he said, agents told him they did not need to see the passport he offered to get from his house.¹ They removed his restraints about 15 minutes after arriving, he said, after a police dog sniffed his truck and did not alert.¹ He reported no criminal charge, and continuing fear and anxiety about detention at work or home.¹

In September 2026, Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffrey U. Beaverstock found that in the 2025 detentions the officers "disregarded the veracity of his documentation and continued to detain him."² He treated the Alabama REAL ID as presumptive proof of lawful presence, enough to end these immigration detentions.² Holding this citizen did not remove an unauthorized immigrant: the officers ultimately confirmed his status and released him.²¹

The Wrong Man Went to the Hospital

On September 20, 2026, Evanston police found a resident on the ground reporting injuries to his head, neck and teeth after an encounter with federal agents.⁴ A federal agent told police that agents had detained him for fingerprinting, then determined he was a U.S. citizen and not the person they sought.⁴ Local officers called an ambulance and later photographed his injuries at the hospital.⁴ Mayor Daniel Biss described the injuries as minor.⁶

Evanston Now reported on October 4 that body-camera recordings and police reports obtained through a public-records request identified ICE supervisor Esteban Rivas, who acknowledged that agents had detained the wrong person; The Daily Northwestern independently reported the identification on October 6.⁷⁸ The person these agents restrained was a citizen, not their fugitive target.⁴

Two Teenagers Recording Agents

On September 11, 2026, agents in Alamo, Texas, detained two 17-year-olds, KRGV reported.⁹ The driver, Luis Ochoa, said both are American citizens who stopped to record an immigration raid.⁹ The station described video showing an agent striking Ochoa's friend in the face four times.⁹ Ochoa said he was pepper-sprayed and that agents broke his wrist.⁹ The teenagers filed a police complaint, and an Alamo police spokesperson said the department was forwarding it to DHS's Office of Inspector General.⁹

On September 21, KRGV reported that ICE arrested and deported his mother, Teresa Ochoa Briseño, after she spoke publicly about his detention.¹⁰⁹ Immigration attorney Carlos M. Garcia raised a concern that her arrest was retaliation for speaking out.¹⁰

The Power to Stop Someone Has Limits

Officers may briefly stop a person they reasonably suspect is in the country unlawfully, citizen or not, and may arrest citizens for assaulting or obstructing them.¹¹³ ProPublica found assaults and guilty pleas, with three dozen citizens sentenced to prison or probation and another three dozen cases pending as of September 15.³

The administration also won interim relief: on September 8, 2025, the Supreme Court stayed a Los Angeles order barring immigration stops based solely on location, work, language or apparent ethnicity, alone or in combination.¹¹ Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence said those circumstances together could support reasonable suspicion, but ethnicity alone could not.¹¹ He added that citizens and others lawfully present must be free to go after a brief encounter, and that the Fourth Amendment still prohibits excessive force.¹¹

DHS told ProPublica its operations are "highly targeted."³ The Evanston agent said the man resembled a fugitive with a warrant, refused identification and resisted, and that he himself was injured handcuffing him.⁴ DHS called the commands lawful and blamed the man's refusal to identify himself, Evanston Now reported.¹² In Alamo, DHS said a teenager banged on an ICE vehicle's window, refused orders and became combative; it called the force the minimum necessary and said two officers were treated for minor injuries.⁹ Police announced an Evanston investigation and an Alamo inspector-general referral, not findings settling those disputes over force.⁴⁹

DHS said parents could choose to take their children abroad or leave them with a safe person they designated; ProPublica reported alleged parental objections.³ Officials disputed Morales Garcia's citizenship in court filings and said he admitted being born in Mexico; DHS did not answer ProPublica's questions about his deportation.³ ICE said Ochoa Briseño had reentered without permission after accepting voluntary return to Mexico following a July 2025 assault arrest.¹⁰ It did not say whether her deportation was linked to the video, KRGV reported, leaving the lawyer's retaliation concern unresolved.¹⁰

Garcia Venegas's own lawyers conceded possible reasonable suspicion for the initial May 2026 stop, in his brother's truck, but not for ignoring his ID and continuing to detain him.¹

In Alabama, the government denied the challenged policies existed; Beaverstock heard its witness and found they did.² It argued Garcia Venegas had no protected privacy interest in worksites he did not own or control; Beaverstock rejected entry into the nonpublic sites without a warrant or consent.² It defended the 2025 stops on suspicion, interference and safety grounds and disputed REAL ID as grounds for release.² Beaverstock found no interference on video, no non-Hispanic workers detained for safety, and "no factual support whatsoever" for suspecting Garcia Venegas was an immigrant.² Of the June 12 stop he wrote: "The Court is simply not inclined to take the Government’s word for it."² He concluded that continuing detention after the REAL ID was produced was likely unconstitutional.²

Three Policies Paused, the Case Still Open

On September 21, 2026, Beaverstock temporarily blocked three DHS policies concerning construction workers: entering private worksites without a warrant or consent, detaining workers without particularized suspicion of unlawful immigration status, and continuing to detain workers after they show evidence of citizenship or lawful presence.² He found Garcia Venegas likely to prevail under the Fourth Amendment and DHS regulations.² Garcia Venegas has neither the injunction he requested nor a final judgment: the suspension is temporary.²

The same day, the court conditionally let the lawsuit proceed as a class action and refused to dismiss his Administrative Procedure Act claims.¹³ As of October 10, 2026, the lawsuit continued and the docket listed no later order lifting the suspension.¹³

Trump ordered this campaign to protect Americans, and a president answers for how his order is carried out.⁵ A citizen produced proof of lawful presence and officers kept holding him.² A man who was not the fugitive needed hospital care.⁴ A court suspended three policies concerning construction workers that it found likely unlawful.² His administration says DHS arrests no citizens by mistake.³ That is an abuse of immigration power, a failure of the protection Trump promised, and a reason to impeach him.⁵²⁴