DHS says it does not arrest citizens; ProPublica calls list an undercount
ProPublica on Oct. 29 published a searchable database of more than 500 cases in which immigration agents reportedly detained U.S. citizens during the current administration, from Inauguration Day through Oct. 21, 2026. The nonprofit newsroom said it compiled the list by scouring social media, court records and local media, including an incident only when it could find at least two sources. It said it found and vetted cases from sources including English- and Spanish-language social media, DHS statements, court records and local news reports, in addition to its own reporting, and that for additional details about an incident — such as whether crowd control weapons were used — it accepted one source in some cases.
Experts have long warned that immigration dragnets would erode the rights of citizens as well as immigrants, ProPublica said, and the newsroom said it is showing “every case we found — the reality that the administration denies — along with the receipts.” The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly said it is not arresting U.S. citizens. ProPublica said it asked DHS about each incident and searched for any federal criminal charges brought in relation to each one, and noted that the government itself does not track these cases. It said that when DHS provided a response specific to an incident — including about whether it happened or the circumstances under which it happened — it noted that response in cases where it offered detail beyond a simple count, and that DHS responses which generically denied ever detaining citizens, or which ProPublica’s reporting proved inaccurate, were not included.
The count covers warrantless arrests outside airports and away from the borders, where immigration agents have long had more authority, and excludes Americans arrested under a judicial warrant, according to ProPublica. The newsroom said it also left out incidents in which an agent shot, tackled or pepper-sprayed a citizen without detaining them, and protesters arrested by police enforcing only local laws, while including some cases in which police worked with immigration agents. ProPublica said it still has little visibility into how many citizens have been detained by police deputized to act as immigration agents. It also found reports of more than 30 Americans who felt racially profiled by immigration agents but did not include them because it was not clear they were held against their will.
Most detained Americans fell into two categories, ProPublica found. More than a hundred were held because agents questioned their citizenship. Roughly 300 were arrested after being accused of assaulting or impeding officers at protests or during immigration arrests of others, and in many of those cases the government accused but never charged the individuals with assault. ProPublica said agents sometimes detained people because of questions about their citizenship but later accused them of crimes, and that while public attention often focuses on ICE, the immigration dragnet often relied on officers from agencies across the government.
The list is almost certainly an undercount, ProPublica said. Except in a few cases in which DHS itself confirmed detentions, the newsroom said it counted only citizens it was able to individually identify. While witnesses estimated as many as 200 citizens were detained in an Idaho raid last fall, ProPublica said it was able to identify only 30 individuals by the time of publication. It said it encountered the same issues for many smaller raids and protests, including a raid of a food plant in Cato, New York; protesters detained by ICE at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey; and a raid of a Hyundai-LG plant in Ellabell, Georgia.
ICE itself has at times stated higher numbers than ProPublica said it could confirm: the agency told Congress that 131 citizens were arrested for assaulting, obstructing or interfering this year in Minnesota’s Metro Surge, without naming them. ProPublica said it cataloged fewer than a hundred.
ProPublica said it tagged each case with details such as whether a minor was detained or a citizen was held after filming. It said another trend it tracked was citizens held for more than a day without access to a lawyer or their family, and that when multiple citizens were detained in one incident, or sometimes on the same day and city, it grouped them together.
As part of the project, ProPublica said it searched every named adult in its list to see whether they were charged with a federal crime in relation to their detention. It said it conducted searches — using several name combinations for people with double or compound names — in federal district courts through the online platform PACER, looking for a criminal case filed within two months of the noted date of a person’s detention in the judicial district in which the detention happened. It said it then noted, as of Sept. 15, whether it found charges, what the charges were, and whether the person involved was sentenced or had their case dismissed or discharged.
The database includes detailed accounts of individual incidents. On Oct. 17 in Long Beach, California, a citizen riding a bike was tasered, injured and handcuffed after colliding with an ICE vehicle. ProPublica said video footage shows the ICE vehicle driving the wrong way down a one-way street, then swerving toward the cyclist. DHS denied hitting the citizen and accused him of smashing the vehicle’s mirror, which ProPublica said is not captured on available video.
In Evanston, Illinois, on Sept. 20, a citizen was injured and detained by ICE agents who were looking for someone who matched his description. A responding Evanston police officer said one agent had blood on his hands and the citizen was taken to the hospital. DHS claimed the man did not cooperate with “lawful commands” and that agents detained him until he identified himself.
The roster includes Jeury Concepcion, a 19-year-old citizen who, according to ProPublica, was walking in front of a barbershop in the Bronx on May 6 when three masked agents tackled him, mistaking him for someone else. The teen said they released him far from home with his head bloodied, and that an agent apologized to him. DHS said “agents temporarily detained the teen to safely finish their questioning.”
Other entries recorded by ProPublica include a mother of four who was detained in Lafayette, Louisiana, at a local law enforcement checkpoint outside her apartment, transferred to ICE custody and booked into a detention facility before her attorney won her release; ICE and the local agency that detained her still dispute her citizenship. In Asbury Park, New Jersey, a woman accused of assaulting an officer during the arrest of her husband was held for eight hours in Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility, and released without any known charges; videos showed her 9-year-old daughter and toddler left crying alone in her vehicle, with ICE agents standing guard until family arrived. In Annapolis, Maryland, a citizen leaving a coffee shop was handcuffed, denied a phone call and held for almost two hours, and DHS said it took the citizen to another location to interview him because “agitators” had gathered.
In April, a 25-year-old citizen from Denver was detained and deported after a traffic stop in Fredericksburg, Texas, when he was unable to provide identification or proof of citizenship. ProPublica reported that he was held without access to his phone or a lawyer for several days before agreeing to leave the country, and that he was allowed to cross back into the U.S. using his Colorado birth certificate in August. The list also includes an immigration lawyer who is a citizen, detained and shackled in New Orleans while trying to film her clients’ detention, and a citizen documenting ICE activity in Ventura, California, who was tackled and tasered while already pinned to the ground.
Among the remaining entries, ProPublica lists one citizen detained in Santa Maria, California (Oct. 15); Naples Manor, Florida (Sept. 23); Falls Church, Virginia (Aug. 10); Passaic, New Jersey (July 23); Laguna Vista, Texas (July 14); Olathe, Kansas (July 11); Boise, Idaho (July 9); Oklahoma City (July 9); Salt Lake City (July 7); Newark, New Jersey, on June 5, May 29 and May 28; Robinson Township, Pennsylvania (May 25); McAllen, Texas (April 11); and Ogden, Utah (March 30). It lists two citizens detained in San Diego (Sept. 15), in Alamo, Texas (Sept. 11), in Norfolk, Virginia (Aug. 7), and in Newark on May 26, and six citizens detained in Newark on May 27. In Bemidji, Minnesota, the database records two citizens who are enrolled members of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, detained on June 11 during a worksite raid.
ProPublica said it reviewed hundreds of videos of federal agents detaining American citizens across the country, including body camera footage, news clippings and helicopter footage, with the vast majority made by bystanders and shared over social media. It said many of the videos went viral and were recirculated across the internet by a range of third-party accounts, and that they touch on everyday American life in settings including workplaces, homes, protests, car washes, suburban sidewalks and the interiors of vehicles. The newsroom said it tagged each video with how clearly it shows the incident and whether the detained citizen was clearly visible, then categorized the videos by the kind of conduct they show, such as citizens being detained after recording, and gave DHS the opportunity to respond to each video it included.
Because many of the videos are violent and upsetting, the publication said it offered readers the option to turn them off, and that it did not alter the videos, add watermarks, blur faces or overlay captions unless otherwise noted. Videos that include captions or watermarks are shown as they were obtained.
The project was reported by Nicole Foy, Ruth Talbot and Cengiz Yar of ProPublica; Liliana Michelena and Bianca Fortis for ProPublica; and Mariam Elba and Kahlie Wray of ProPublica.