Federal immigration agents have arrested nearly 20,000 people across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia since President Donald Trump returned to office, flooded the region with enforcement operations and faced a federal judge’s order restricting warrantless arrests in the District.
The dragnet has also caught American citizens.
A Maryland-born woman was held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 25 days and moved through detention facilities in four states despite her lawyers producing a U.S. birth certificate and hospital records. A U.S. citizen leaving a coffee shop in Annapolis was handcuffed, denied a phone call, and held for nearly two hours in June. Two more citizens were detained in Norfolk, Virginia, in August.
Those cases are part of a much larger national picture documented in a new ProPublica investigation published Tuesday. Reporters identified 506 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents since January 2025, including children, people filming enforcement operations and Americans who spent days in custody without access to lawyers or relatives.
“I’ve never seen so many U.S. citizen encounters in all my years,” Darius Reeves, who previously oversaw ICE’s Baltimore office, told ProPublica. “It’s an embarrassment.”
ICE made more than 19,500 arrests in D.C., Maryland and Virginia between the beginning of Trump’s second term and the first three months of this year. Nearly 60% of those arrested had no prior criminal record. During the final full year of the Biden administration, ICE recorded fewer than 3,800 arrests across the same region.
Federal authorities followed that with “Operation Safe Community — Washington, D.C.,” a two-week sweep from Aug. 1 through Aug. 14 that resulted in 1,328 arrests in Maryland and Virginia. The Department of Homeland Security had claimed that nearly 400 of those arrested had been convicted of or charged with crimes in the United States, including some accused of murder, kidnapping, identity theft and hit-and-run offenses.
The administration has portrayed such operations as targeted public-safety campaigns aimed at people who are in the country illegally, particularly those with criminal records.
But enforcement practices in the District have already collided with a federal court.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell issued a preliminary injunction last year restricting warrantless civil immigration arrests in D.C. unless agents make an individualized determination that a person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. In May, Howell found that guidance given to federal immigration officers did not satisfy that requirement and ordered the administration to comply.
Court records found at least 10 D.C.-area immigration arrests involving U.S. Park Police, including traffic stops that ended with ICE taking people into custody.
“Once again, our officers are out in the streets arresting and removing criminal alien offenders from American communities – this time in the Washington, D.C. area,” said ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Acting Assistant Director Patricia Hyde in an Aug. 24 DHS statement.
Americans Caught in the Dragnet
ProPublica identified more than 100 Americans who were held after immigration agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.
At least 70 children and teenagers who are U.S. citizens were detained, including about 20 who were handcuffed or zip-tied. At least 63 citizens were detained while recording immigration activity. Thirty-six were held for a day or longer without being able to contact their families or attorneys. Roughly a dozen U.S. citizens, mostly children, were deported, according to the investigation.
Additionally, more than 300 Americans were detained after agents accused them of assaulting or obstructing officers. Fewer than half were ultimately charged in federal court, according to the investigation, and many of those cases were later dismissed or dropped.
Researchers said the count is almost certainly low because the federal government does not maintain a public tally of citizens detained during immigration enforcement. ProPublica said it reviewed social media posts, court records, local news reports, and other material and generally required at least two sources before adding an incident to its database.
DHS rejected the characterization of its operations.
“DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence,” the department claimed, adding that people who obstruct federal agents can face arrest.
Arrests, Broken Windows, and Children
Dulce Consuelo Diaz Morales, 22, was arrested in Baltimore on Dec. 14, 2025, and held for 25 days while her attorneys insisted she was born in Maryland and therefore an American citizen.
Her lawyers provided a Maryland birth certificate, hospital records, and other documentation. DHS disputed her citizenship and maintained that she was a Mexican national.
Diaz Morales was eventually released in January. Months later, the federal government issued her a U.S. passport, and removal proceedings against her were halted.
Another encounter occurred June 7 in Annapolis. A citizen leaving a coffee shop was handcuffed, denied permission to make a phone call, and held for nearly two hours. DHS said agents moved the person elsewhere for questioning because “agitators” had gathered at the location.
On Aug. 7, two U.S. citizens were detained during immigration enforcement in Norfolk, and the cases put the national findings much closer to D.C. residents than distant raids in California, Texas or the Midwest.
The incidents cataloged by ProPublica describe encounters at homes, workplaces, protests, parking lots, sidewalks and inside vehicles.
Some citizens said agents smashed car windows. Others were tackled or forced to the pavement. Several were held at gunpoint.
In Oregon, a 17-year-old on his lunch break was detained after agents broke his car window. Video reviewed by ProPublica captured the teenager telling an agent he was a U.S. citizen.
“I don’t care,” the agent responded.
In Minnesota, 20-year-old U.S. citizen Jeyli Salguero said armed federal agents broke into her family’s home while searching for her brother, who did not live there.
“The 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,” Salguero remarked. “That’s when they snatched my phone.”
DHS has said ICE does not restrain children or separate families. However, the latest investigation documented American children who were handcuffed or zip-tied, including a 15-year-old with disabilities whom agents said they mistook for an alleged gang member.
“This is Un-American. Period,” one social media user said in response to Oversight Dems, which reposted the ProPublica report. “It’s disgusting that there are so many cruel, hateful people gleefully treating humans like garbage.”
Pressure Builds in Congress
Democratic Reps. Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Andrea Salinas of Oregon introduced the ICE Shootings Transparency Act, legislation that would require DHS and the Justice Department to provide state and local law enforcement agencies access to evidence involving ICE and Customs and Border Protection shootings and other use-of-force incidents that cause injury or death.
District of Columbia Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) is among the bill’s cosponsors.
“When an ICE or CBP agent kills or injures someone in our community, transparency needs to be the bare minimum,” Salinas said.
The legislation was introduced as ICE prepares another major expansion. The agency is seeking 5,000 additional hires in coming months after hiring roughly 11,400 people since Trump returned to office, although retirements, resignations and dismissals have reduced the net workforce increase to about 6,400.
ICE also issued new internal guidance restricting vehicle pursuits and traffic stops following shootings and other encounters around the country. The directive prohibits high-speed pursuits and limits certain vehicle-stop tactics to specially trained officers, according to reporting on the memorandum.
The Supreme Court has now agreed to examine another central piece of the administration’s immigration campaign, its policy requiring detention without bond hearings for many immigrants while their cases proceed. Numerous lower courts have rejected the government’s interpretation of federal immigration law.
Willy Wender Aceituno, a naturalized citizen who said he voted for Trump twice, added that Border Patrol agents broke his truck window last year, pulled him out and forced him onto the pavement.
His U.S.-born daughter now carries her passport at college.
“She has a Latino face,” Aceituno said. “My daughter’s white friends aren’t carrying their passports.”
