Jose Hermosillo, a 19-year-old from New Mexico, had a horrifying ordeal while visiting Arizona. Border patrol agents illegally detained him, sparking outrage and sending the boy into a crisis. The incident happened in Nogales — a city about an hour south of Tucson in Arizona’s border with Mexico. Hermosillo, who repeatedly told CBP officers he was a U.S. citizen, was held for almost ten days even though they had no evidence to the contrary.
On April 8, 2023, Hermosillo was pulled over by border patrol officers who asked him about his immigration status. Without the appropriate immigration paperwork, the agents did not recognize his assertions of citizenship. It was just his disbelief that led to him being temporarily detained by the U.S. Marshals. Even through all this, he still fought for his citizenship.
Hermosillo spent his entire detention at the private Florence Correctional Center. This facility is privatively operated and managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). His girlfriend’s family campaigned for his safe return. They began contacting various officials and finally, they found out that he’d been taken into custody.
That’s why in a surprising and unprecedented reversal of fortunes, a federal judge, Maria S. Aguilera, threw out Hermosillo’s case on April 17, 2023. Their dismissal highlighted the outrageousness of his detention and pointed to a pattern and practice of danger and dysfunction among border enforcement agencies.
“He did say he was a US citizen, but they didn’t believe him,” – Hermosillo’s girlfriend’s aunt
This incident takes place alongside a disturbing pattern of increased immigration enforcement, which has reached new, sinister levels under the Trump administration. In doing so, the administration has emboldened immigration officers to make arrests and deport anyone they suspect of being undocumented. Indeed, since Donald Trump took office, we’ve seen reports of hundreds of foreign students losing their visas. This administration is no stranger to retaliating against people who engage in politically inconvenient demonstrations.
The wrongful arrest and three-week detention of Jose Hermosillo shed light on the often vexatious and contradictory nature of immigration enforcement in the United States today. Critics argue that such incidents reflect an environment where even U.S. citizens may find themselves vulnerable to wrongful detentions due to aggressive policing strategies.
Her death has renewed calls to end the violence against immigrants and citizens alike occurring at our nation’s border checkpoints. Civil liberty and human rights activists, as well as legal experts, worry about the precedent that these detentions set for civil liberties and human rights.