{"id":74688,"date":"2025-08-11T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74688"},"modified":"2025-08-11T12:00:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T19:00:47","slug":"padilla-warren-kelly-demand-homeland-security-investigate-arrests-detentions-and-deportations-of-u-s-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=74688","title":{"rendered":"Padilla, Warren, Kelly\u00a0Demand\u00a0Homeland Security Investigate Arrests, Detentions, and Deportations\u00a0of U.S. Citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 11, 2025)<\/b><\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), along with Representatives Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46) and Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.-10), led 45 Congressional Democrats in\u00a0urging<\/a>\u00a0Department of Homeland Security offices to launch an investigation into the Department\u2019s stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of U.S. citizens.<\/p>\n

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy\u00a0makes clear<\/a>\u00a0that by law, \u201cICE cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest and\/or detain a U.S. citizen.\u201d Yet, in recent high-profile cases, including in Los Angeles, ICE has arrested U.S. citizens, even appearing to\u00a0use violent physical force<\/a>. ICE has also detained citizens in immigration detention facilities, sometimes for over a week.<\/p>\n

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ICE has even deported U.S. citizens,\u00a0including children<\/a>, along with their undocumented parents, reportedly against the families\u2019 wishes, stoking widespread fear among American families, particularly in Latino and Native American communities.\u00a0DHS\u2019 detention and deportation of American children has forced them to miss months of school or lose access to lifesaving cancer treatments and medications.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSweeping enforcement operations by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents \u2014 particularly within Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) \u2014 threaten the safety, due process, and civil liberties of Americans around the country,\u201d\u00a0wrote the lawmakers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen immigration agents arrest Americans without sufficient cause or simply because they are near an enforcement action, detain them without access to counsel, or ignore proof of citizenship, DHS fails in its core duty to protect the public and undermines trust in its operations,\u201d\u00a0continued the lawmakers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Agents are also\u00a0failing<\/a>\u00a0to attempt to\u00a0verify citizenship<\/a>\u00a0and ignoring citizens\u2019 offers to show proof of citizenship, even though\u00a0ICE policy<\/a>\u00a0directs them to \u201chandle these matters with the utmost care and highest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ICE\u2019s erroneous enforcement actions against U.S. citizens are\u00a0not new<\/a>, and have long\u00a0been acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0by the agency. But under the second Trump Administration, this rare practice is becoming more frequent.\u00a0Experts warn<\/a>\u00a0that \u201ccitizens are becoming increasingly vulnerable in a system moving faster and operating with fewer safeguards.\u201d The number of impacted citizens may continue to grow, as ICE engages in indiscriminate raids to triple arrest numbers to meet an arbitrary 3,000 daily quota while gutting due process \u2014 including by firing immigration judges, inappropriately expanding expedited removal, and misusing\u00a0the\u00a0Alien Enemies Act<\/em>. ICE has reminded field offices to update citizenship data in agency databases, but it is unclear whether agents are complying with that directive.<\/p>\n

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The lawmakers asked the agency to provide, by September 5, 2025, clarity on its policies and guidelines related to the arrests or detentions of U.S. citizens, along with: data on stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of citizens this year; information about how agents are trained to verify citizenship status; and any ongoing reviews or investigations of wrongful detentions of citizens.<\/p>\n

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In addition to Padilla, Warren, Kelly, Correa, and Goldman, the letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), as well as Representatives Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (D-Va.-08), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.-14), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.-03), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas-16), Greg Casar (D-Texas-35), Judy Chu (D-Calif.-28), Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.-09), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas-37), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), Jes\u00fas G. \u201cChuy\u201d Garc\u00eda (D-Ill.-04), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas-29), Al Green (D-Texas-09), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.-04), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), Jonathan L. Jackson (D-Ill.-01), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.-17), Timothy M. Kennedy (D-N.Y.-26), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.-08), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.-02), Sarah McBride (D-Del.-AL), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.-06), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.-AL), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.-03), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.-09), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.-10), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Dina Titus (D-Nev.-01), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.-13), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.-20), Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.-15), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.-07), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.-05), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.-24), also signed the letter.<\/p>\n

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Senator Padilla has been a leading voice in opposition to President Trump\u2019s cruel and indiscriminate mass deportation agenda, including his unprecedented\u00a0militarization of Los Angeles with the deployment of National Guard troops and active-duty U.S. Marines in response to overwhelmingly peaceful protests. He recently introduced the\u00a0VISIBLE Act<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to require immigration enforcement officers to display clearly visible identification during public-facing enforcement actions. Last\u00a0week, Padilla\u00a0joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/a>\u00a0to call out the Trump Administration\u2019s cruel, unpopular mass\u00a0deportations.<\/p>\n

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In June, he\u00a0led the entire Senate Democratic Caucus<\/a>\u00a0in demanding that President Trump immediately withdraw all military forces from Los Angeles and cease all threats to deploy the National Guard or active-duty service members to American cities. Padilla also recently\u00a0placed a hold<\/a>\u00a0on Trump\u2019s nominee to serve as vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, Lieutenant General Thomas Carden, until the Trump Administration releases all remaining U.S. military forces from their unjustified deployment to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 11, 2025)\u00a0\u2014 U.S....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74689,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74688\/revisions\/74689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}