By Joseph De Avila

Chicago native Julio Noriega was walking down a street in Berwyn, Ill., in January when immigration agents grabbed him and stuffed him in a van, he said in court documents.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents didn't give Noriega, 54 years old, an opportunity to explain that he was a U.S. citizen -- and didn't present him with a warrant, according to his lawsuit against the Trump administration.

"I was so in shock and terrified about what was happening," Noriega said in a court declaration.

The officers took Noriega to a processing center where he was held for several hours. Eventually, the officers reviewed the identification in his wallet and released him, the lawsuit said. ICE declined to comment on the lawsuit or Noriega's account.

President Trump's aggressive push for mass deportations of illegal immigrants is raising the likelihood that more U.S. citizens and people living in the country legally will get swept up in enforcement actions, legal experts said.

While previous administrations have picked up Americans in error during raids, the current administration's drive for more arrests and faster deportations increases the risk of mistakes, including the detainment and arrests of U.S. citizens, said Deborah Fleischaker, former acting chief of staff for ICE under the Biden administration.

"There isn't enough time to think about what you're doing and who you're doing it to," Fleischaker said.

ICE officials began implementing daily arrest targets in January. The Trump administration has been fighting in court over its use of expedited removal proceedings, where people can be quickly deported without a hearing.

ICE's new collaboration with local law-enforcement agencies and other federal agencies not trained in immigration enforcement also raises the possibility of more detentions of U.S. citizens, Fleischaker said.

The stakes for mistakenly arrested Americans are higher because immigration officials have been holding more people in detention while their cases move through immigration court, instead of releasing them as they have in the past.

It is longstanding ICE policy to carefully and expeditiously investigate whether individuals encountered by the agency are U.S. citizens, an ICE spokesperson said.

U.S. citizenship law is complex and some citizens might not know they are citizens as a matter of law, the spokesperson said.

Arizona arrest

Border Patrol arrested Jose Hermosillo, a U.S. citizen, on April 8 in Nogales, Ariz., according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Arizona that alleged he entered the U.S. illegally. A separate affidavit signed by Hermosillo that was released by the Department of Homeland Security said border-patrol agents actually picked him up in Tucson, about 70 miles north of Nogales.

His family presented documents proving his citizenship and he was released, the Department of Homeland Security said. On April 17, a magistrate judge in Arizona dismissed the criminal complaint alleging he entered the U.S. illegally.

According to the affidavit released by the Department of Homeland Security, and which had a rudimentary signature from Hermosillo, he told the agents he was a Mexican citizen and entered the U.S. illegally.

"Mr. Hermosillo's arrest and detention were a direct result of his own actions and statements," the Department of Homeland Security said.

Hermosillo's girlfriend told Arizona Public Media he has learning disabilities and is illiterate. He likely didn't understand the affidavit that he signed, she said. Hermosillo himself told the outlet he has never been to Nogales and said he told the border-patrol agents he was a U.S. citizen.

Jacqueline Stevens, a political-science professor at Northwestern University who has spent years surveying immigration attorneys and performing research, estimates in recent administrations that about 1% of all those detained by ICE are U.S. citizens.

She said that number is poised to increase under Trump's deportation campaign.

Racial-profiling fears

Advocacy groups fear that the Trump administration's aggressive crackdown will increase the chance of federal agents racially profiling Americans.

Noriega, who is Latino, believes the ICE agents who picked him up in Illinois racially profiled him, his lawyer said.

"We don't often hear of raids happening in ethnic white communities," said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center, a legal advocacy group.

Matos's office has been fielding questions from U.S. citizens on whether they should carry passports to be able to prove their citizenship in case they run into ICE.

"That is the level of intimidation and fear that this administration has created and impacts disproportionately people of color," Matos said.

Florida arrest

Florida Highway Patrol held U.S. citizen Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez overnight last week, stating in an affidavit that Lopez Gomez said he was living in the country illegally. He was detained under Florida's new law barring people living in the U.S. illegally from entering the state.

The 20-year-old was traveling in Florida on his way to a construction job when highway-patrol officers pulled over the car he was traveling in as a passenger, said Mutaqee Akbar, his lawyer.

Lopez Gomez, from Cairo, Ga., provided the officer with his Real ID-compliant identification card issued by the state of Georgia and his Social Security card, Akbar said, adding that the officer never asked his client whether he was authorized to live in the U.S.

A judge in Leon County, Fla., determined there was no probable cause to hold Lopez Gomez under the state charges after reviewing his birth certificate showing he was born in the U.S.

However, Florida Highway Patrol continued to hold Lopez Gomez under a request by ICE for a 48-hour hold. The police released him after detaining him for a total of 30 hours, Akbar said. The state charges were dropped Monday.

The Florida Highway Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security didn't respond to requests for comment about Lopez Gomez.

"He always thought that, 'If I just show my documentation, I'll be fine, '" Akbar said. "That wasn't enough, so he is very fearful now."

A federal judge has temporarily blocked enforcement of the Florida law pending further review.

Write to Joseph De Avila at joseph.deavila@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 26, 2025 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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