A U.S. citizen in Portland, Oregon, was detained by plainclothes officers and held at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building for hours before being released, according to his attorney.
Francisco Miranda was outside his place of work early on Oct. 2 when multiple agents wearing masks, who did not identify themselves, approached him and told him he was “on an overstay,” his attorney Michael Fuller said. In a video that Miranda took of his detention, he can be heard saying, “What do you mean, overstay? I don’t know what that is.”
He told the officers that he was born in California. After objecting to being taken into custody and saying he hadn’t done anything wrong, an officer can be heard on the video saying, “We’re gonna put you in cuffs or you’re gonna get the dog.”
Miranda was then struck from behind, handcuffed and put into an unmarked vehicle that took him to Portland’s ICE building, Fuller said. He was held there for several hours before being driven back to his place of work.
ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.
Willamette Week, a local news outlet, first reported the incident.
Fuller said it was the first detention of a U.S. citizen on the pretext of being in the country illegally that he was aware of in Oregon. Such detentions have occurred elsewhere in the country, including in Alabama, Florida and Southern California.
Aggressive immigration enforcement has been central to President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum said she was “infuriated” by what happened to her constituent. “Masked federal agents aren’t welcome in our state and they can’t keep kidnapping Americans,” she said in a statement.
Fuller, who said he has a copy of Miranda’s California birth certificate, sent a tort claim notice to the Department of Homeland Security and a letter to its leader Kristi Noem, requesting the documents and information used to justify the detention. DHS oversees ICE.
“I hope that ICE and the senior officials will just provide us the documentation,” Fuller said. “If it truly was an honest mistake that couldn’t have been avoided, then we won’t go to court. Right now, we’ve just been given no answers. And so that’s all we’re asking for at this point, it’s just answers.”
