Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told reporters last week that federal immigration agents “have not detained any U.S. citizens.” But public records, lawsuits, and reporting tell a different story — one that shows multiple American citizens have been restrained, questioned, and in some cases jailed as part of the Trump administration’s expanding immigration crackdown.
Noem Says ICE Is Only Arresting Undocumented Immigrants
During an October 30 press conference in Gary, Indiana, Noem touted “Operation Midway Blitz,” an enforcement effort led by the Department of Homeland Security through its Chicago field office. The operation, which stretches across six Midwestern states, has resulted in more than 3,000 arrests. Asked whether any U.S. citizens had been caught up in those arrests, Noem was unequivocal: “There’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained,” she said. “Anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true.” That statement was wrong.
Over 150 Citizens Have Been Detained
Federal agents and protesters speak through a fence outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Ill., on Sept. 29, 2025. The facility is at the heart of President Donald Trump’s Operation. Midway Blitz, an effort to crackdown on immigration enforcement in the Chicago area.
Court filings and investigative reports show that U.S. citizens have repeatedly been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents — including during Operation Midway Blitz. A ProPublica investigation earlier this year identified at least 170 documented cases of U.S. citizens detained or arrested since Trump’s second term began. Several of those detentions happened in the Midwest. One of those citizens, Steve Held, was arrested in Chicago and later released without charges. Another, Julio Noriega, was taken into custody and held overnight before agents discovered his wallet contained valid U.S. identification. Noriega is one of 22 plaintiffs represented by the ACLU in lawsuits alleging unlawful arrests of U.S. citizens by ICE.
Way Too Many Citizens Have Been Arrested For Noem To Make This Claim
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrest a clarinet player who was part of a musical band protesting in front of their facility in Portland, Oregon, October 12, 2025, during the Emergency Naked Bike Ride
Other examples include Debbie Brockman, a Chicago television station employee who was detained by Border Patrol before being released without charges; Jose Hermosillo, a New Mexico man with an intellectual disability who was jailed for 10 days before his family produced a birth certificate; and Leonardo Garcia Venegas, an Alabama construction worker detained while filming a raid in which he repeatedly told officers, “I’m a citizen.”
DHS Has Admitted To Wrongful Detentions
Deisy Perez begins to weep while walking alongside a bus escorted by several U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents and Department of Homeland Security officers at the DHS field office in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Multiple immigrant rights groups gathered to protest what they believed to be a multi-agency operation to detain-noncitizens overnight. “I am a DACA recipient former undocumented child, I work in immigration now, I see the families affected every single day,” Perez said.
The Department of Homeland Security has tried to reconcile Noem’s claim with these incidents by saying that some U.S. citizens were detained only because they “obstructed” law enforcement or could not immediately verify their identity. Still, the agency’s own public statements acknowledge that wrongful detentions have happened.
Will DHS Aim For 100% Accuracy?
Operation Midway Blitz has swept across Chicago, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kentucky, and Kansas, targeting undocumented residents but also ensnaring citizens caught in confusion, poor recordkeeping, or overzealous policing. The evidence shows otherwise: American citizens have been detained, questioned, and jailed under the very operation Noem was defending. The promise of absolute accuracy in enforcement — that citizens will never be mistaken for undocumented immigrants — remains, for now, a promise broken.
