Democrats demand answers for more US citizens being detained by DHS

(NewsNation) — The Department of Homeland Security insists its officers' top target remains the "worst of the worst" in a nationwide immigration and crime crackdown, but American citizens are increasingly the ones being taken into federal custody.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., co-authored a letter with fellow Democrat and Washington U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapayl questioning top immigration officials about the growing number of U.S. citizens being detained by federal officers and agents.

The letter, sent to DHS Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, asked why Americans are continually being detained illegally. In the letter, Raskin and Jayapayl accuse federal law enforcement of terrorizing American communities.

The letter was sent as a follow-up from February, when the House Judiciary Committee’s panel on immigration raised “serious concerns” that U.S. citizens were being wrongfully taken into federal custody.  The panel expressed frustration that, rather than answering specific concerns about Americans being detained, DHS officials cited existing policy that prohibits American citizens from being mistakenly arrested or detained.

“You are in clear violation of that policy,” the letter stated. “DHS and ICE continue to wrongfully detain U.S. citizens — sometimes with violent force — while failing to investigate these cases with the urgency and care required.”

ICE Deputy Director Shawn Byers testified in federal court in Chicago on Monday that 75 U.S. citizens have been arrested during a multi-agency immigration and crime crackdown dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz” since the beginning of September. Byers told U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis that he did not know how many of those people had been charged criminally.

In this handout photo provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the New York City Fugitive Operations Team, joined by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, conducted targeted enforcement operations resulting in the arrest of an illegal Dominican national. (Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images)

Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant DHS secretary, did not specifically answer a question from NewsNation on Monday about why people accused of assaulting federal officers and agents were being released from federal custody without being charged criminally.

Instead, she said that American citizens, including a Chicago woman, Deborah Brockman, reportedly threw objects at a Border Patrol agent’s car and were arrested in connection with assault on a federal law enforcement officer.

Brockman has not been charged criminally and was released after being held in federal custody for seven hours, according to her attorneys. In a statement, Brockman denies wrongdoing and said she feared for her life multiple times throughout this terrifying experience.

“If armed, masked, federal agents are snatching U.S. citizens off the street as they walk to work and throwing them in unmarked vehicles, you can only imagine what these agents must be willing to do to our immigrant neighbors and people who dare to speak out against them,” Brad Thomson, one of Brockman’s attorneys at the People’s Law Office, said in the statement.

Border Patrol agents walk past the Chicago River on Sunday.

Attorneys for Brockman did not respond to multiple messages sent by NewsNation seeking more information about Brockman's detention.

Ellis' concerns over federal officers' tactics come after another federal judge recently ruled DHS had likely repeatedly violated a 2022 consent decree stipulating that federal agents must have either a judicial warrant or probable cause to make arrests. Lawyers from the National Immigration Justice Center say that warrantless arrests have ramped up over the past six weeks in Chicago.

Federal agencies conducted an early-morning raid on an apartment complex in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood, where DHS said 37 people were arrested. The agency said the complex was targeted because of the presence of suspected Tren de Aragua members.

However, concerns quickly arose about the number of U.S. citizens who were detained, including a 67-year-old Chicago man who said he was dragged out of his apartment by federal agents, zip-tied and detained for hours.

Gregory Bovino, the U.S. Border Patrol's commander-at-large, told NewsNation that no Americans' rights were violated as part of the operation.

"We're not violating rights, we're making it safe for (Americans) so they can live in a safe and secure neighborhood," Bovino said at the time. "No rights have been violated today."

Bovino, along with ex-Acting Chicago ICE Field Office Director Russell Hott, has been ordered by Ellis to be deposed by attorneys as Ellis continues to seek more answers about federal officers and agents' use of force.

DHS did not respond to a follow-up email sent by NewsNation on Monday asking for specifics on why charges were not filed against Brockman and others who have been detained by federal agencies.

 “This incident is not isolated and reflects a growing and dangerous trend of illegal aliens violently resisting arrest and agitators and criminals ramming cars into our law enforcement officers,” McLaughlin said in her initial statement. “These attacks highlight the dangers our law enforcement officers face daily — all while receiving no pay thanks to the Democrats’ government shutdown.”