Immigration detentions of U.S. citizens in the second Trump administration were caused by U.S. immigration enforcement actions by agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and involved documented cases in which American citizens were stopped, detained, arrested, or held in custody in connection with immigration operations. Reporting based on official records and court filings has described incidents in which enforcement personnel detained people without first confirming citizenship status, and in which citizens were allegedly subjected to enforcement actions later challenged as unlawful or unsupported by accurate official narratives.
Because the federal government did not maintain a comprehensive public count of citizen detentions, totals have largely been reconstructed through investigative reporting and litigation; ProPublica reported at least 170 citizen detentions through October 2025 and described cases involving alleged force and multi-day detention without access to counsel or communication. Commentators and advocacy groups have argued that the pattern of detentions reflects racial profiling and has contributed to some citizens carrying passports or other proof of citizenship within the United States despite there being no general legal requirement to do so. Incidents involved public officials and oversight activity. On September 18, 2025, multiple New York City and New York State elected officials were arrested and detained by ICE while seeking access to inspect immigration holding cells described in court proceedings as unsanitary and overcrowded. Other reported cases have involved citizens detained during street encounters, workplace actions, and protests, including military veterans arrested during demonstrations against ICE activity.
Background
Dentention is any form of restriction which prevents an individual from leaving a place, or where a person's liberty is restricted. Detentions can be as minor as a traffic stop. As such, detentions of U.S. citizens by law enforcement are extremely common. Most states do not require law enforcement agencies to document routine detentions. California is an exception. Its Racial and Identity Profiling Act of 2015 (RIPA) requires each state and local agency that employs peace officers to annually report every stop to the Attorney General. In 2024, about 5.1 million stops were performed by law enforcement in California alone. Nationwide, tens of millions of detentions result in over 10 million arrests. In contrast, though the U.S. government does not track how many citizens have been detained by immigration agents, ProPublica reported at least 170 U.S. citizen detentions through October 2025. ProPublica further reports that Immigration agents do have authority to detain U.S. citizens in limited circumstances. Agents can hold people whom they reasonably suspect are in the country illegally. They can also can arrest citizens who allegedly interfere with or assault officers.
Cato Institute states that U.S. citizens were tackled and arrested by immigration officials. Cato further states, "the Immigration and Nationality Act itself prohibits ICE and Border Patrol from even interrogating anyone about their right to be in the United States without a warrant or reasonable basis to believe that they are an alien." The Act seems to state the opposite: "Any officer or employee of the Service authorized under regulations prescribed by the Attorney General shall have power without warrant to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States."
ICE has confirmed in official court records to detaining people without first validating or confirming their citizenship status. The Los Angeles Times reported three witnesses stated that then-acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli screamed at a prosecutor after members of a grand jury refused to indict U.S. citizens against the wishes of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. In one example, immigration officials stated Christian Cerna-Camacho, a U.S. citizen, told an immigration official he was going to "shoot him", physically attacked the official, and initiated a multiple-person foot chase, but video evidence revealed the foot chase did not happen, the Times reported. The DOJ proceeded with prosecuting Cerna-Camacho regardless. On July 11, 2025, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong found roving immigration patrols were illegal due to violating standards of reasonable suspicion of crimes and that the Trump administration was criminally denying detained United States citizens access to required legal counsel. The Guardian found most cases and proceedings filed by immigration officials against U.S. citizens to be false and misleading, and many were dismissed.
In August 2025, it was reported that non-white American citizens in California had begun carrying United States passports domestically in fear of ICE contact and detention. Legal advisors have begun warning citizens in spite of this to consider carrying documents for their own safety, due to documented and ongoing incidents of ICE detaining U.S. citizens. Naturalized citizens also began to warn each other and their communities to carry paper proof of who they are as self-defense against ICE. One naturalized citizen said she at first dismissed her daughters' advice to carry a passport, believing their family was not at risk, although she had heard about instances of others approached by ICE, taken, detained and deported. She only reconsidered when her white, American-born husband, who works in law enforcement, urged her and their daughters to carry proof. While a Real ID compliant form of identification is required for domestic air travel, there is no law or legal requirement for U.S. citizens to carry proof of citizenship within the country. A history teacher is reminded of Japanese-Americans being sent to internment camps, such as Manzanar. Northwest Asian Weekly reported naturalized citizens, including those of Chinese, Korean, and Indian American heritage, leave their homes less frequently due to fear of contact by ICE agents and carry documents such as passports when they do.
Research by ProPublica indicated that in the same year, more than 170 incidents of citizens being detained by immigration officials occurred. In 2025, an additional twenty citizens reported being detained for longer than a day by immigration officials without access to a phone call, legal counsel, or in some cases with their family having no information at all of the whereabouts of their disappeared family. Citizen military veterans of the United States Armed Forces have been prosecuted or sought damages in 2025. In October 2025, The Guardian identified eight instances in which U.S. military veterans had been detained for protesting ICE detentions and operations and accused them of being "Antifa-aligned terrorists". One U.S. Marine Corps veteran sued the government for being tackled from behind and beaten by ICE agents, an incident captured on video. A DHS spokesperson said he has been known to throw rocks at people and the building and falsify injuries using fake blood.
ProPublica has documented that immigration agents have arrested at least 130 American citizens who have allegedly interfered with immigration operations or have been accused of assaulting officers. At least 50 of these cases have yet to yield charges against the individuals or were dismissed outright.
Quotas and disregard of probable cause or warrant orders Tom Homan Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, confirmed that ICE had made what he described as "collateral arrests" of "many" American citizens.
According to Homan, ICE may detain people "based on the location, their occupation, their physical appearance, their actions like... the person walks away." Homan framed the sharing of the "Know Your Rights" information as "how to escape arrest." Homan said such knowledge was harmful to law enforcement activities.
On August 13, 2025, Homan claimed, "President Trump doesn't have a limitation on his authority to make this country safe. There's no limitation."
Stephen Miller The Cato Institute stated that there was a three-fold increase in the targeting of Hispanic Americans by ICE officials after Stephen Miller, the homeland security advisor to Donald Trump instructed the agency to stop "develop[ing] target lists of immigrants" and instead "go out on the street" to immediately detain people at "Home Depots or 7-Elevens". In May 2025, Miller told Fox News, "We are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day".
Targeted demographics Hispanic and Latino ICE and the Federal government have been accused of specifically targeting Hispanic and Latino members of society, regardless of their citizenship or immigration status. as of July 2025, numerous Latino and Hispanic citizens of the United States have been detained, one for ten days.
90% of targeted individuals were confirmed to be of Latin American heritage directly from analysis of data obtained from ICE officials.
Navajo Nation All Navajo people born within the United States are U.S. citizens due to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and the United States Constitution. According to the Navajo Nation, over a dozen indigenous people had been questioned, detained, or asked to provide proof of citizenship by federal law enforcement during immigration raids in January 2025. In some cases, ICE officers were not aware that Certificates of Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB) are proof of citizenship, and one person was detained for nine hours. In another case, eight Native Americans were detained for two hours after their workplace was raided. Their phones were confiscated, and one Navajo woman reported that she was not able to provide proof of citizenship until her phone was returned and she was able to text family, one of whom sent a copy of the woman's CDIB.
Enough Navajos have been stopped by immigration authorities that the nation created a guide with tips about what to do if stopped, encouraging people to always carry identification and that families alert their children about what to do, including having them memorize their Social Security numbers. Other tribes have also issued tips and warnings, and Native News Online published an article, "Native Americans and Immigration Enforcement–Know Your Rights." Navajo Arizona state senator Theresa Hatathlie suggested that tribes contact DHS to share what their travel enrollment card and CDIB look like.
Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens as established by the Jones-Shafroth Act (1917), which made Puerto Rico a U.S. territory. In spite of their citizenship, ICE raids detained and arrested Puerto Ricans under the second Trump administration in multiple incidents. In one, a U.S. military veteran from Puerto Rico was detained on January 23, 2025, after an ICE raid at a seafood warehouse in Newark, New Jersey. The veteran worked there as a warehouse manager. The co-owner of the business said that ICE appeared to be targeting people who look Hispanic, while ignoring his white employees.
In another notable incident, three members of a Puerto Rican family were taken to a detention center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 27, 2025, after an immigration officer heard one of them speaking Spanish. They were released prior to processing when they provided documentation. ICE claimed the incident did not happen. There have been a significant upswing in passport requests from Puerto Ricans to provide documentation to satisfy immigration officers.
Identified citizens Arrest of 15 New York city and state officials by ICE