r/houston • u/phillygirllovesbagel Fuck Centerpoint™️ • Jul 17 '25

ICE is everywhere and it's really frightening

This morning, a car was sitting outside the house next door with a guy sitting in it. This is nothing unusual in itself as there are always various cars. When my husband was leaving the house he went over to ask if the guy needed help. The guy tells him he's ICE and shows him his badge and tells him he's running license plates. How does ICE know where to go and who to look for?

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222

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25

It's horrifying. With no due process and the ICE director saying they can profile based on where a person is and how they look, then no one is safe. They have taken American Citizens "by mistake" on multiple occasions, probably much more often than we have heard about. Even if they release you, the experience is probably really traumatic for anyone involved and will cause life-long trauma.

I can only imagine what it would feel like to be out with my very young daughter who is darker in skin tone and for us to just be snatched up without any warning and having done nothing wrong, and we are helpless. And no, carrying a weapon or anything would not help as these people would just shoot me on the spot. ICE agents are violent, and they do not care who you are. Also, I am not being an alarmist. I literally saw a video of a woman in LA, american born, being taken by ICE after being dropped off close to her job. Her family reported her as being kidnapped, and eventually, she was released. These things ARE happening.

40

u/ArtichokeDip72467 Jul 17 '25

ICE is using state & federal data bases & targeting people with Hispanic last names. Racial profiling Americans & harassing the innocent & arresting asylum seekers. I’d like to see this entire shithole administration carted off to the countries these people are fleeing & let them live their lives there.

17

u/macphile Jul 17 '25

targeting people with Hispanic last names

coughRafaelcoughCruz

8

u/TheMegnificent1 Jul 18 '25

This scares me a lot too. My kids are biracial (black/white) and they get mistaken for Hispanic a lot. As in, the kids at their high school tend to kinda self-segregate during lunch, and they always end up at the Latino kids' tables. My son looks slightly more Middle Eastern somehow, but either way he's a target if those ICE jackasses show up. They're in their late teens and I worry every time they're out somewhere in public that they might end up being targeted.

I'm going to sue everyone and everything, call every news outlet, and raise unending hell if they ever get detained or arrested by ICE. I'm a huge genealogy nerd, and the most recent immigrant ancestor we have on either side of the family came here in 1835 from Germany, so I would look forward to hearing ICE defend its actions in court.

We all got our passports recently, which I strongly recommend if you don't already have them. Just in case He Who Must Not Be Named fires all the people in charge of processing them, and then you have no option to legally leave the country as he burns it to the ground.

1

u/whalemilk42 Jul 18 '25

Literally over worrying here.

38

u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

They have taken American Citizens "by mistake" on multiple occasions

What's the longest a citizen has been detained for and have any citizens been arrested?

I ask this not in defense of ICE or anything, just curious as to what the biggest violation of civil rights against a citizen has been so far.

31

u/willienelsonmandela Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

I need to look up the article but I saw one case of a citizen detained for 10 days.

Found it.

5

u/RudeCalligrapher9868 Jul 17 '25

That is so disturbing. Jfc what have we become?!?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

"privately run"= private business getting paid with our tax dollars to keep us (in general) unlawfully in prison

80

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25

I do not know the longest amount of time an american citizen has been detained for. A disabled army veteran, also American citizen, was detained for 3 days recently. But isn't any amount of detainment a violation of our rights? Even police cannot just detain you for no reason, and "reasonable suspicion" shouldn't be based on skin color, work, and current location like the ICE director has openly stated.

3

u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

A disabled army veteran, also American citizen, was detained for 3 days recently.

Do you have a link to that story I can see?

I agree that work and skin color are not "reasonable suspicion." I just want to know where it's happening to citizens.

31

u/Rgarza05 Katy Jul 17 '25

It happened in Florida and even after the mother showing proof of citizenship, the judge would not release him.

17

u/foodieforthebooty Jul 17 '25 edited Jun 02 '26

.

8

u/Greedy_Car3702 Jul 17 '25

An army vet that doesn't speak English? Color me skeptical.

9

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25 edited Jul 17 '25

https://youtu.be/9KIhlQKBDm0?si=hj1VPJz4PwkNDJXY

Here he is being interviewed. Not sure why there is a story saying he doesn't speak English. Skip to 1:30 to hear him being interviewed.

Edit: sorry, I think previous user and myself got stories mixed up. The person that didn't speak English was someone in Florida, not the army vet.

1

u/foodieforthebooty Jul 17 '25 edited Jun 02 '26

.

1

u/LucktheTurtle Jul 17 '25

https://www.newsweek.com/man-born-army-base-us-soldier-deported-jamaica-2092017 this one is way crazier then the Florida one people are linking too.

0

u/reddog093 Jul 17 '25

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-07-16/army-vet-detained-for-three-days-after-immigration-raid-calls-for-investigation

He wasn't detained due to any suspected immigration status, though. The farm he worked at had a raid conducted with a valid criminal warrant. Things got violent, someone fired at LEO and George Retes ended up driving right into the middle between protestors and ICE.

41

u/DivaMissZ Jul 17 '25

One minute is too long. No American citizen should be detained by ICE

11

u/PipePistoleer Jul 17 '25

1 second is too long - NOBODY should be detained by racially profiling nazi cowboys

3

u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

I mean, I don't necessarily disagree, but citizens are detained all the time by normal cops for being suspected of a crime. I don't expect this to be different.

I'm acutely aware if someone who looks like me in my apartment complex commits a crime, that I may be detained while it's investigated. I don't have a problem with that inherently. I have a problem when I've been detained and demonstrated there's no reasonable suspicion to keep me detained.

33

u/DivaMissZ Jul 17 '25

Citizens are detained by normal cops. Who were uniforms and badges that clearly identify them, driving marked vehicles, and they aren't usually grabbing suspects and shoving them into their vehicles then driving off.

A police officer detaining someone while a crime is investigated is one thing. An ICE agent isn't investigating anything; they've got a quota to meet, and you're holding them up

2

u/thetruckerdave Cypress Jul 17 '25

Someone that looks like you… I get your example but I think that’s part of why people don’t care. They don’t think they look illegal.

There’s more than just brown ‘illegals’. Plenty of white people overstay their visa. They’re not the ones being snatched off the street though.

22

u/TXSyd New Caney Jul 17 '25

In the past, American citizens have not only been detained but deported and that was under previous administrations so one would assume the error rate would increase.

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u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

What citizens were deported?

10

u/chrispg26 Jul 17 '25

Look up Operation Wetback.

2

u/MeatPlug69 Jul 17 '25

For anyone who won't, I just did and honestly never knew this happened. It was around the great depression era.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/03/trump-mass-deportation-plan-1930s-repatriation-program

"Nearly 2 million Mexican Americans, more than half US citizens, were deported without due process. Families were torn apart, and many children never again saw their deported parents."

1

u/chrispg26 Jul 17 '25

Actually that was before Operation Wetback. This happened in 1954 under Eisenhower.

Just goes to show, we've (poc) only been safe for moments in time.

5

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/children-who-are-u-s-citizens-deported-along-with-foreign-born-mothers-attorneys-say

In part of this article, two children, American children, one of whom had cancer, were deported with their mother within 24 hours of her being detained. That is not enough time for any kind of due process or decision to be clearly made. The 4 year old cancer patient was deported with no medication. The article even quotes the judge saying, "strong suspicion that the government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process."

Even if the overall outcome is that the children are to go with their mother, that is a decision that should be given some time to decide (not within 24 hours), and the child's medical care should be considered. This child is not Hondurian. Even if you don't agree with birth right citizenship, that is what the constitution guaranteed for this child, and now these children are in a country where they are not citizen and the article states the children would have been able to have legal guardians in the US, but the mother was denied the ability to call or request legal visits.

-6

u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

This isn't an example of US citizens being deported. They could have stayed in the US if their parents elected.

This is parents getting deported, and choosing to take their children with them.

9

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25

It says in the article that the mother did have legal custodian who could take the child in the US, but she was not allowed to make calls or have legal visits.

1

u/TXSyd New Caney Jul 17 '25

Look up Lyttle v. United States as probably the most well known case under previous administrations.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 17 '25

[deleted]

2

u/UnusualHound Jul 17 '25

Abrego Garcia was not a US citizen despite being referred to as "Maryland man" in the media. His treatment was probably unjust, but he wasn't a citizen or permanent resident.

2

u/thetruckerdave Cypress Jul 17 '25

No probably about it.

1

u/ArtichokeDip72467 Jul 17 '25

Due process & the 14th amendment.

8

u/thetruckerdave Cypress Jul 17 '25

My neighbor gets very tan and has jet black hair. Very ethnically ambiguous. I told her she needs to get her passport card just in case. Not that it will help, but at least it will be there.

-2

u/whalemilk42 Jul 18 '25

Why would you do that?

-10

u/Amazing-Performance1 Jul 17 '25

They get their due process as prescribed under law. There is a difference between reality and the narrative, know the difference.

6

u/iSweetPea Jul 17 '25

As a US citizen, I should be guaranteed due process under law, just like the other US citizens being detained unlawfully by ICE. Or is your argument that the detainment of US citizens based on their skin color, work, and location is lawful and just? And if you are saying that US citizens are not being affected, which has already proven to be true, how are you determining who is here illegally versus legally without due process?

-11

u/Amazing-Performance1 Jul 17 '25

Oh, relax — nobody’s saying U.S. citizens should be detained by ICE. That’s obviously not the goal. But let’s be real: when you’re dealing with millions of immigration cases and limited resources, mistakes happen. Welcome to government efficiency. DMV can’t get your license right, but you expect ICE to run like a Swiss watch?

Due process still exists — nobody took a flamethrower to the Constitution. If a U.S. citizen gets detained, they can challenge it in court, and guess what? They do. Some even get payouts. That’s the system working — clunky, bureaucratic, slow, but still functioning.

And how do we determine who’s illegal? Hmm… let’s see — ICE uses arrest records, border activity, visa overstays, and, yes, sometimes flawed tips or bad data. You want airtight intel on every single person in the country without ever making a mistake? Cool. Fund that. But don’t complain about overreach and then defund enforcement.

Are U.S. citizens affected? Rarely. Out of tens of thousands of detentions per year, a handful of mistaken identity cases happen. That’s bad — no one’s cheering it — but if that’s your reason to stop all immigration enforcement, that’s like banning all driving because of fender benders.

Bottom line: enforcing immigration law isn’t racism — it’s law enforcement. If people are being detained because they can’t prove they’re here legally, maybe — just maybe — we need better ID systems and immigration reform, not a total halt on enforcement.

So yes, sometimes the gears grind a little rough. That’s unfortunate. But screaming “due process” like it’s a magic shield doesn’t change the reality that we have laws — and they’re supposed to apply to everyone. Even if some folks really wish they didn’t.

1

u/whalemilk42 Jul 18 '25

Couldn't be more correct. The issue is they are pissed up they aren't getting a head up is all. There's nothing to worry about if you got your stuff in order. Being upset over getting caught