ICE Harasses Texas Woman Despite 47 Years as U.S. Citizen After Hearing Her Accent

A San Francisco physician has accused masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of harassing her elderly mother at a Texas outlet mall. The mother has been an American citizen for 47 years.

Dr Nisha Patel posted on X that agents assumed her mother spoke Spanish because of her accent. When the woman explained she did not speak Spanish, they began rapidly listing countries and demanding to know where she was from, according to Business Today. The woman told them she had lived in the country longer than some of them had been alive. They only released her after she showed a passport photo on her phone.

A CBS Minnesota review found ICE has detained at least 12 American citizens in that state since Operation Metro Surge began in December. None were charged with any crime, but several reported violent treatment.

Agent Cites 'Accent' As Reason For Stop

In a Minneapolis suburb on 15 January, video footage captured Border Patrol agents detaining Ramon Menera outside his home. His five-year-old daughter watched through the window as agents accused him of not being a citizen.

When Menera asked why they were demanding his paperwork, the agent's response was blunt: 'Because of your accent,' CNN reported. The agents zip-tied his wrists and pulled him away. They released him only after checking him in the system.

Four days earlier in Brooklyn Park, dashboard camera footage showed masked agents forcing Rogelio Jimenez from his vehicle. He screamed that he was a U.S. citizen. An agent demanded he prove it, CBS Minnesota revealed. The agents handcuffed him and drove him around for roughly 20 minutes before releasing him. An agent later told Jimenez they had been searching for someone with the same name. Jimenez believes his Mexican heritage and the Mexican flag decals on his vehicle made him a target.

Agents Told Him Wife Was Stopped 'Because She Is Mexican'

In West St Paul, Luis Escoto watched armed and masked agents surround his 69-year-old wife's car as she parked outside their family restaurant. The fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent just days earlier was fresh in his mind. He grabbed her passport card and ran outside, fearing they would break the window and drag her into the snow.

When he asked why they were questioning her, agents told him it was because she is Mexican, according to the CBS article. His wife, Irma, is from New Mexico. She is a U.S. citizen. Escoto, who became an American in 1992, broke down in tears during his interview. He said he loved his country more than his own life but was devastated to see what was happening to it.

Target Workers Pinned To The Floor, Shouting Citizenship

On 8 January, Border Patrol agents approached two Target employees helping customers at the mobile order pickup in Richfield, Minnesota. When the workers declined to answer questions about their citizenship and tried to enter the store, agents grabbed them, Bring Me The News said.

Video shows agents pinning both men to the floor in the store's vestibule. One shouted: 'I'm literally a U.S. citizen!'

Minnesota State Rep. Mike Howard confirmed both men were American citizens who sustained injuries during the encounter. Both were released without charges. Howard described the arrests as 'pure madness' and called them an escalation of federal enforcement that has created widespread fear, the Star Tribune reported.

Detained For Days Without Charges

Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old born and raised in Minnesota, spent two days in ICE custody after agents approached her in her predominantly Somali neighbourhood on 14 January. She appeared at a press conference with bandages on her head, alleging agents used violence and called her a racial slur before detaining her, CBS added. Ahmed was released without any charges. The news outlet found no evidence of a criminal record.

On 18 January, agents detained 69-year-old Chongly Scott Thao at gunpoint at his St Paul home, bringing him outside in freezing temperatures wearing little more than a blanket. He was released without charges. On 6 January, another naturalized citizen told CBS that ICE left him hospitalised after detaining him. In December, Minneapolis officials said ICE wrongfully arrested a U.S. citizen because he looked Somali.

Off-Duty Police Officers Also Targeted

Minnesota police chiefs held a press conference on 20 January to voice alarm. Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said his department had received endless complaints from U.S. citizens about civil rights violations. Off-duty officers had also fallen victim, he said. Every person stopped was a person of colour, Fox News reported.

One Brooklyn Park officer was boxed in by federal agents while driving off duty, Bruley said. They demanded her paperwork despite her being a U.S. citizen with no immigration documents to show. When she tried to record the encounter, an agent knocked the phone from her hand. Agents had their weapons drawn. They left immediately after she identified herself as a police officer, according to Fox 9.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt was blunt at the press conference. 'I am seeing and hearing about people in Hennepin County being stopped, questioned and harassed solely because of the colour of their skin,' she said, adding that local law enforcement leadership could not accept actions that were 'not only wrong, but illegal.'

Patel ended her post with a warning: her mother has been a U.S. citizen for 47 years. If anyone thinks this is just about sending criminals back, she wrote, they are dead wrong.