U.S. Customs and Border Protection
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security responsible for regulating and facilitating international trade and travel while enforcing immigration and customs law at U.S. borders. It operates ports of entry and patrols the land and maritime borders between them. CBP played a central role in the administration's border security operations beginning in 2025.
Also known as CBP
2026 Events (39)
San Francisco Chronicle investigation revealed CBP held dozens of SFO detainees, including green-card holders, beyond 72-hour legal limit
A San Francisco Chronicle investigation published September 1, 2026 found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has held at least 25 people beyond its own 72-hour detention limit at San Francisco International Airport through July 2026, 19 of them lawful permanent residents; one detainee spent eight days without a bed or shower, and another went without diabetes medication for eight days until paramedics were called. Rep. Kevin Mullin, whose district includes SFO, conducted an unannounced oversight visit the same day and said CBP officers acknowledged the extended holds reflect "a definitive policy shift from the Trump administration."
CBP border-wall contractors drilled unauthorized wells in New Mexico groundwater basins, allegedly tampered with meters to hide water diverted
On August 26, 2026, New Mexico's Office of the State Engineer sued the United States and three border-wall contractors — Barnard Construction Company Inc., Wyatt Drilling Arizona LLC, and Cascade Drilling LP — alleging they drilled water wells without required state authorization in the Mimbres, Hachita, and Lower Rio Grande groundwater basins to supply border-wall construction, and tampered with a totalizing meter to conceal how much water was diverted. State Engineer Elizabeth K. Anderson said the state would seek double repayment for all illegally diverted groundwater. The suit follows earlier August 2026 reporting that the state had already threatened to revoke the contractors' drilling licenses over the same unauthorized wells.
CBP's Border Patrol SWAT team blockaded Tohono O'odham police to shield border-wall contractors from trespass citations
Before dawn on August 25, 2026, roughly 20 masked, armed U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents -- including the Border Patrol's BORTAC tactical unit -- entered Tohono O'odham Nation land, escorted border-wall contractors to construction sites, and set up a vehicle blockade to keep Tohono O'odham Police Department officers from citing or removing them. CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said "a federal court has affirmed" the project; multiple outlets reported the August 14 ruling he cited only denied a preliminary injunction and neither affirmed the project nor dismissed the Nation's pending lawsuit.
Border Patrol arrested Key West father of deployed USS Lincoln sailor; DHS held him for deportation despite no criminal record
On August 22, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Luis Manuel Aviles Roa, a 48-year-old Key West, Florida handyman, during a traffic stop while his son Joshua was nine months into a deployment aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Aviles, a Nicaragua native who has lived in the U.S. for about 19 years, was placed in ICE custody pending deportation; his wife said he holds a work permit and the family says he has no criminal record, while DHS confirmed the arrest, said he entered the country illegally, and did not dispute the absence of a criminal record. DHS said in a statement that "having a family member in the military is not a free pass to violate our nation's laws."
WIRED FOIA disclosure reveals CBP employees misused law-enforcement databases to surveil exes, colleagues, and family members for over a decade
WIRED reported on August 13, 2026 that internal CBP and DHS Inspector General records, obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, document nearly 300 allegations of law-enforcement-database misuse by Customs and Border Protection employees between 2009 and 2022, including officers using government systems to track romantic interests, family members, and colleagues, and in some cases to feed information to suspected smugglers. Of those allegations, 138 were referred to CBP management and 78 were assigned to internal criminal investigators, but CBP withheld or left blank the outcome in most cases and would not disclose specific disciplinary results.
CBP arrested a Billings parent and his 9-year-old child without a warrant and held them at the Havre Border Patrol Station
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested Adrián Espinoza De La Cruz, a four-year Billings resident, and his 9-year-old child on Aug. 11, 2026 without a judicial warrant and took them to the Havre Border Patrol Station in northern Montana, where both remained in custody nine days later. Attorneys with Upper Seven Law petitioned the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana for their release, arguing the Havre station is not built for long-term detention and that a detained minor is entitled to specific protections the government has not shown it is meeting. The U.S. Attorney's Office acknowledged in a court filing that agents made the arrest without a warrant and without evidence the two posed an escape risk, and argued that releasing them would nonetheless not be appropriate.
CBP sought private contractors to track down and photograph deported people's homes abroad to collect fines
On August 4, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a solicitation seeking private contractors to locate and photograph the homes of people it has deported to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, so the government can pursue unpaid failure-to-depart fines that can reach $998 a day and up to $1.8 million per person. The program, capped at $9 million over two years, would have the government own all data investigators gather with unlimited reuse rights, and comes after CBP's three existing debt collectors reported finding no one located outside the U.S. as of July 2026. Sens. Dick Durbin and Alex Padilla have called the underlying fines "arbitrary and potentially unlawful" and say DHS did not respond to their July inquiry about the program.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied a British Dartmouth student reentry and refused for weeks to explain why
On August 2, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied British citizen and Dartmouth College sophomore Taha Tariq reentry to the United States at the Derby Line, Vermont border crossing, while the three American classmates traveling with him were admitted within hours. CBP told The Dartmouth only that Tariq underwent "additional inspection" and was found inadmissible, and in two subsequent on-the-record statements over the following three weeks declined to say whether he had been issued an expedited removal order or to explain the basis for the denial. Tariq's attorney said CBP "lacked proper grounds to deny re-entry," and as of the most recent reporting Tariq remained stranded in Canada, finishing his summer coursework remotely.
CBP contractor Barnard Construction bladed and cleared Texas state trust land in Presidio County without required consent
On July 31, 2026, the Texas General Land Office sent a cease-and-desist letter after finding that Barnard Construction, a federal contractor building U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border wall, had used heavy equipment to blade terrain and clear vegetation across more than a mile of state trust land in Presidio County, Texas, without the GLO's required written consent. The land is part of a roughly 10,000-acre grazing lease the GLO holds with Trans Pecos Ice LLC along the planned Big Bend-area wall corridor; the GLO said the unauthorized clearing devalued the lease and demanded restoration and a reclamation plan. CBP acknowledged the incident and said it was working with the contractor and the GLO to resolve it, while Barnard did not respond to requests for comment.
CBP arrested Worden, Montana man without a warrant, held him unlawfully for over a week
On July 30, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested Jesus Verde Hernandez, a 10-year Worden, Montana resident with no criminal history, in Lewistown without a warrant or probable cause, then transported him through multiple facilities before holding him at the Cascade County Detention Center in Great Falls. On August 8, 2026, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Morris ordered Hernandez's release, finding the government had pursued a detention policy "deemed unlawful by the majority of courts." Hernandez was one of roughly 17 people his attorneys say were held in Cascade County on the same allegedly unlawful basis.
Court filing revealed ICE, Border Patrol agents used racial slurs to target Latinos during Los Angeles immigration sweeps
Plaintiffs in Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on July 27, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, citing newly disclosed text messages and bodycam footage in which ICE and Border Patrol agents used slurs including "wet" and "tonks" to identify Latino people for stops during Los Angeles-area immigration sweeps. The filing alleges an "ongoing campaign of suspicionless and discriminatory detentive stops" that continued after the high-profile summer 2025 raids ended, with one ICE agent admitting in a deposition the agency was "still doing the same thing."
CBP forensic phone searches of Palestinian-American activist violated Fourth Amendment, federal judge ruled, based on unverified congressional letter
On July 16, 2026, U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection violated the Fourth Amendment when officers conducted two forensic searches of the cell phones of Osama Abu Irshaid, a U.S. citizen and executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, at a U.S. international airport in 2024. The court found the "reasonable suspicion" CBP cited -- including an unverified May 2024 letter from Rep. James Comer alleging the organization's financial ties to Hamas -- did not justify the nonroutine device searches. The court ruled for the government on a separate First Amendment retaliation claim, finding no evidence of retaliatory animus, and ordered both parties to brief remedies within 21 days.
CBP seized journalist Max Blumenthal's phones at Dulles Airport days after Trump ally Loomer called for his arrest
On July 10, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seized journalist Max Blumenthal's two cellphones during a secondary inspection at Washington Dulles International Airport as he returned from reporting on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's funeral in Tehran, days after Trump ally Laura Loomer publicly urged the administration to arrest him. CBP produced no warrant and retained the phones for about a week, telling Blumenthal it intended to forensically extract their data, while leaving his laptop and cameras untouched. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) sued DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Blumenthal's behalf, and a federal judge later found the search raised serious Fourth Amendment concerns.
DHS and CBP waived Rivers and Harbors Act levee-safety review to keep building the Big Bend border wall amid a flood-risk lawsuit
On July 2, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection waived the Rivers and Harbors Act's levee-safety review requirements to continue border wall construction in the Big Bend region near Presidio, Texas. The waiver came two weeks after the Presidio Municipal Development District sued DHS and CBP, arguing the wall project could compromise flood-control levees protecting roughly 52 square miles of the area without required Army Corps of Engineers approval. DHS had already waived other environmental and contracting laws for the project in February 2026 but had not previously exempted the 1899 statute.
Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that CBP metering policy does not violate asylum law, eliminating asylum seekers' principal legal challenge avenue
On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mullin v. Al Otro Lado that U.S. Customs and Border Protection's "metering" policy — systematically turning asylum seekers away at ports of entry before they physically cross the border line — does not violate federal asylum law. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito held that noncitizens physically blocked at a port of entry have not "arrived in the United States" within the meaning of 8 U.S.C. § 1158 and therefore have no statutory right to apply for asylum. The decision forecloses the primary legal avenue that had permitted asylum seekers to challenge their systematic exclusion at the border.
CBP deports more than 200 Filipino sailors on unproven child sexual abuse material accusations
An NPR investigation published June 6, 2026 documented that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has deported more than 200 Filipino professional mariners since 2025 after accusing them — without charges, prosecutions, or presented evidence — of possessing child sexual abuse material. Agents board cruise and commercial ships in port, search crew members' phones, revoke their crew visas, and remove them to Manila within roughly 24 hours, with 10-year entry bans in at least some cases. The Pilipino Workers Center has tracked at least 212 such cases, all visa revocations with no criminal charges.
DHS denies World Cup referee Omar Artan entry at Miami airport under Somalia travel ban
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials denied entry to Omar Abdulkadir Artan, a Somali national and one of FIFA's 52 selected referees for the 2026 World Cup, when he arrived at Miami International Airport on June 6, 2026, despite his holding a valid U.S. visa. DHS said on June 8 that Artan was "determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns" — Somalia is among the countries named in the administration's June 2025 travel-ban proclamation — and FIFA confirmed he will be unable to train or officiate at the tournament.
CBP detained pregnant Ghanaian woman and disabled son at Dulles Airport for over a week
On May 19, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers detained Annabella Gyasi, a pregnant 38-year-old Ghanaian woman traveling on a valid visa with her young son for a medical appointment, at Washington Dulles International Airport after she said she feared returning to Ghana. DHS and CBP held the pair for more than a week in a windowless holding room, during which Gyasi was hospitalized twice for pregnancy complications.
ACLU lawsuit revealed Memphis Safe Task Force retaliated against residents who recorded its agents
On May 13, 2026, the ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal lawsuit, Demster v. Blanche, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on behalf of four Memphis residents, alleging a sustained pattern of retaliation by the multi-agency Memphis Safe Task Force against people who recorded its immigration and law-enforcement operations. The suit documents an October 2025 arrest and 27-hour jailing of one observer on a charge later dismissed, dozens of arrest threats against another observer under Tennessee's proximity "Halo Law," a traffic ticket that was never filed in court, and agents photographing, tailing, and surveilling observers' homes with unmarked vehicles.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded Barnard Construction a $1.6 billion no-bid border-wall contract citing urgency
On April 24, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection awarded Barnard Construction Company — a Montana firm chaired by Trump donor Tim Barnard — a $1.6 billion contract to build roughly 112.5 miles of secondary border wall in the El Paso Sector, without competitive bidding. Federal records list "urgency" as the justification for bypassing competition and show that cost and pricing data were waived. The award was part of a broader pattern in which CBP steered most new Texas and New Mexico wall contract value to two of eleven pre-approved vendors.
CBP border-wall contractor bulldozed the 1,000-year-old Las Playas Intaglio, a Tohono O'odham sacred site, in Arizona
On April 23, 2026, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection contractor bulldozed a roughly 50-to-60-foot swath across the Las Playas Intaglio, a 1,000-year-old geoglyph sacred to the Tohono O'odham Nation, in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The site had been identified, staked, and was under active discussion for protection, but was cleared without notice as the administration fast-tracks a second border barrier using REAL ID Act waivers that bypass environmental and historic-preservation laws.
Border Patrol detained physician Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar and her US-citizen daughter at McAllen airport
On April 11, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Dr. Rubeliz Bolivar, a Venezuelan-born emergency-room physician with a pending asylum claim, and her 5-year-old U.S.-citizen daughter at McAllen International Airport as they traveled to a scheduled asylum interview in California. Bolivar was transferred to ICE custody the next day and held for weeks; ICE said she had overstayed a 2016 visitor visa, while her family, employer, and medical advocacy groups said she held a valid work-authorization card tied to her and her husband's pending asylum and green-card applications.
ICE deported Brian Morales Garcia, who says he is a U.S. citizen, to Mexico after a Texas traffic stop
After Texas troopers stopped a pickup near Fredericksburg for a window-tint violation on April 3, 2026, and called in federal immigration agents when passenger Brian Jose Morales Garcia could not produce identification, ICE and Border Patrol detained him for five days and removed him to Mexico on April 7 despite his repeated statements that he was a U.S. citizen born in Denver. Morales says he was denied the chance to retrieve his birth certificate and Social Security card and signed a quick-departure form only because he feared months in detention. The Department of Homeland Security disputes his citizenship and claims he admitted entering the country illegally.
CBP detained Venezuelan physician Dr. Ezequiel Veliz at Texas checkpoint over disputed status
On April 6, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained Dr. Ezequiel Veliz, a Venezuelan-born family-medicine resident physician at Knapp Medical Center in Weslaco, at the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint in South Texas while he and his husband, Joseph Williams, drove from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. Veliz had lived in the U.S. for about nine years and lost his work authorization in late 2025 when the Trump administration terminated Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan nationals, though he had a pending green card application based on his marriage to Williams, a U.S. citizen; agents took him to a migrant detention facility in McAllen to await an immigration court hearing.
U.S. Border Patrol and ICE detained Canadian mother and her 7-year-old autistic daughter for 19 days despite valid work visa
On March 14, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Canadian citizen Tania Warner and her seven-year-old autistic daughter, Ayla Lucas, at a checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, and ICE held them for 19 days at processing and family-detention facilities in Texas despite Warner holding a work visa valid through 2030. Neither DHS nor CBP explained the legal basis for the detention; a federal immigration judge released the pair on $9,500 bond on April 2, 2026, after finding they were not a flight risk.
CBP officer's personal vehicle struck LA protester outside federal detention center; no police report filed
On March 13, 2026, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer driving his personal vehicle struck protester Jasmin Alyssa Quan-Martinez outside the federal detention complex in downtown Los Angeles, with video showing her carried on the hood before being thrown to the curb; she sustained minor injuries. The Department of Homeland Security said roughly ten protesters had surrounded and struck the officer's car as he left work and characterized the incident as one "rioter" jumping onto a moving vehicle, an account Quan-Martinez disputed. No police report was filed and no arrests or charges had been announced in the days after.
Federal judge found ICE, Border Patrol made warrantless, race-based stops of Somali, Latino Minnesotans
U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud ruled on March 9, 2026 that ICE and Border Patrol agents violated the Fourth Amendment by stopping and detaining Somali and Latino Minnesotans based solely on race or ethnicity during a January-February 2026 immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities. Of 33 witnesses examined in an ACLU class-action suit, Tostrud found 23 were subjected to stops lacking reasonable suspicion, and 17 were stopped based solely on race or ethnicity; he denied a preliminary injunction and class certification, citing the surge's wind-down.
Border Patrol leaves near-blind Rohingya refugee in freezing Buffalo lot; death ruled homicide
On February 19, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents took Nurul Amin Shah Alam — a 56-year-old, nearly blind Rohingya refugee who spoke little English — from a county jail and released him alone outside a closed Tim Hortons in Buffalo, New York, in near-freezing cold. He was found dead five days later, and the Erie County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by a perforated duodenal ulcer precipitated by hypothermia and dehydration. DHS initially said agents had left him at a "safe location," but surveillance footage contradicted that account.
CBP removed civil rights history, including a James Meredith desegregation story, from its website during Black History Month
U.S. Customs and Border Protection deleted several historical "Did you know?" stories from its public website between February 2 and February 9, 2026, during the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. The removed content included an account of Border Patrol agents protecting James Meredith during the 1962 desegregation of the University of Mississippi, along with biographies of Black explorer Matthew Henson and other Black and female CBP figures, all of which had been posted by CBP since March 2014. A CBP spokesperson told Unraveled the agency was "looking into" the removals but did not explain them.
CBP agents smashed a livestreaming bystander's car window and detained her for hours at an El Monte, California gas station
On January 30, 2026, federal agents responding to a Customs and Border Protection call surrounded U.S. citizen Maria Santay's car at a gas station in El Monte, California, and broke her window with a hammer while she livestreamed the encounter on Instagram and cried out that she was a citizen. Agents then drove her roughly 40 miles round trip to Santa Ana and back before releasing her from custody that evening; Santay says she was denied a restroom and made to urinate in handcuffs in a parking lot before her release.
Border Patrol agents shoot and kill U.S. citizen VA nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis
On January 24, 2026, two federal agents — Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and CBP officer Raymundo Gutierrez — shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and Department of Veterans Affairs intensive-care nurse, on a Minneapolis street during a federal immigration surge. The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was armed and "violently resisted," but bystander videos showed him pepper-sprayed and pinned to the ground before the shots, and the Hennepin County medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. The two agents were placed on administrative leave and the Justice Department opened a civil rights investigation.
Immigration officer detained Cheektowaga woman with pending asylum claim for 26 days after warrantless arrest
On January 24, 2026, a federal immigration officer detained R.C.R., a 55-year-old Cheektowaga resident, without a judicial warrant while she was in a Walmart parking lot with her husband. R.C.R. had a pending asylum application and employment authorization at the time; she was held for 26 days and released on bond on February 19, 2026.
Intercept investigation revealed ICE database marked protest observers as domestic terrorists; DHS revoked travel credentials in retaliation
A January 23, 2026 video captured an ICE agent recording a protest observer and stating, "we have a nice little database, and now you're considered a domestic terrorist," the first documented evidence of a DHS/ICE/CBP database labeling lawful protest observers as terrorists and revoking their TSA PreCheck, Global Entry, and passport access. The Intercept filed a FOIA lawsuit against DHS on June 24, 2026 after the agency refused to produce documents about the program, with court exhibits from a Minnesota immigration case corroborating the database's use and at least one civilian losing travel credentials within three days of photographing an ICE operation.
Federal agents pepper-sprayed Minneapolis protesters outside Whipple building one day after court order barred it
On January 17, 2026, federal agents deployed chemical irritants against peaceful demonstrators outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis — conduct that U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez had specifically enjoined less than 24 hours earlier. The January 16 injunction, arising from an ACLU lawsuit over Operation Metro Surge, barred federal agents from pepper-spraying, arresting, or retaliating against peaceful protesters. Rather than comply, the Trump administration appealed and sought an Eighth Circuit stay, which the appellate court granted on January 21.
U.S. Border Patrol detained Gresham, Oregon family, including 7-year-old, in Portland hospital parking lot; held past Flores limit
U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Darianny Liseth González de Crespo, her husband Yohendry de Jesús Crespo, and their 7-year-old daughter Diana in the parking lot of Adventist Health Portland on January 16, 2026, while the Gresham, Oregon family sought emergency care for the child's persistent nosebleed. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed on the record that Border Patrol agents made the detention; the family was driven to Washington state and flown to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where they were held together for 21 days -- one day past the 20-day limit on detaining children set by the 1997 Flores Agreement.
Border Patrol agents choked and dragged Honduran cook from car, knocked him unconscious during St. Paul gas station arrest
On January 11, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents smashed the car window of Orbin Mauricio Henriquez Serrano, a Honduran restaurant cook, at a Speedway gas station in St. Paul, Minnesota, then dragged him from the vehicle, choked him, and knelt on his back while handcuffing him until he lost consciousness. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino, who was directing enforcement activity in the area, watched the arrest. Henriquez Serrano was detained, denied medical care and a lawyer for days, and deported to Honduras before he could meet with the attorney his family had retained.
U.S. Border Patrol detained Spokane asylum-seeker and his 10-year-old daughter, held them a month at Texas facility
U.S. Border Patrol agents detained Guatemalan asylum-seeker Arnoldo Tiul Caal and his 10-year-old daughter Karla Tiul Baltazar in Spokane, Washington, on January 10, 2026, a day after first stopping and questioning him, despite his ongoing asylum case and clean record. The pair, who had lived in Spokane since 2019, were held roughly a month at the Dilley, Texas immigration processing center -- where Karla ran a fever and vomited -- before the Department of Homeland Security released them on February 6 without contesting a due-process habeas petition alleging DHS had violated its own regulations.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent kneed a man in the face repeatedly while other agents held him down during a Minneapolis arrest
On January 9, 2026, a U.S. Border Patrol agent driving the wrong way on a south Minneapolis street struck an oncoming car, then pulled the driver out and, with other agents holding him facedown, kneed him in the face at least five times as bystanders filmed and objected. DHS said the man is a "criminal alien from Ecuador," while a fundraiser organized on his behalf described him as a U.S. resident who had been observing ICE activity; he was later hospitalized for breathing difficulty before being taken into federal custody.
U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and wounded two Venezuelan nationals during Portland vehicle stop
On January 8, 2026, U.S. Border Patrol agents shot and wounded Luis David Nino-Moncada, 33, and Yorlenys Zambrano-Contreras, 32, two Venezuelan nationals, during a vehicle stop outside a medical clinic in Southeast Portland, Oregon. The Department of Homeland Security said the driver "weaponized" his vehicle and an agent fired "a defensive shot"; none of the six Border Patrol agents present wore body cameras and no video was immediately available. Federal prosecutors charged Nino-Moncada with assaulting an officer and damaging federal property and charged Zambrano-Contreras separately with illegal entry, while defense counsel called DHS's accompanying gang-affiliation claim unsupported.
2025 Events (16)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Fernando Vazquez during a Cary, North Carolina immigration sweep
On the morning of November 18, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agents in unmarked vehicles detained Fernando Vazquez, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen and commercial landscaper, near a construction jobsite in Cary, North Carolina, as part of a broader immigration sweep moving from Charlotte into the Raleigh/Triangle area. Agents asked where he was from, confiscated his wallet, and drove him roughly two miles before determining he was a U.S. citizen and releasing him, discarding his belongings — including his IDs and AirPods — on the ground rather than returning them.
CBP agents arrested two Charlotte women for honking at immigration vehicles during Operation Charlotte's Web
On November 17, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested Tatyana Reisini and Kristen Roos, two U.S. citizens, in Charlotte, North Carolina after the women honked a car horn and blew a whistle near immigration vehicles during Operation Charlotte's Web. Agents boxed in their SUV, shattered the driver-side window with a rifle barrel, and detained both women with their hands zip-tied behind their backs for approximately four hours. Both were charged with assaulting federal agents; the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina voluntarily dropped all charges in March 2026.
Border Patrol agent pointed gun at bystanders, another punched handcuffed detainee in Evanston, Illinois
On October 31, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agent Timothy Donahue pointed his service weapon at unarmed bystanders and threatened to shoot them after a vehicle crash in Evanston, Illinois, while fellow agent Thomas Parsons punched a handcuffed man on the ground. Agents pepper-sprayed onlookers and detained three U.S. citizens, who were released without charges after several hours in federal custody. Both agents were operating under U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Operation Midway Blitz.
CBP officer choked and shoved protester to the ground outside Durango, Colorado ICE facility
During an overnight protest outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Durango, Colorado, in the early morning of October 28, 2025, a masked Customs and Border Protection officer — later identified as Nicholas Rice — grabbed protester Franci Stagi's phone and threw it across the street, then put her in a chokehold and shoved her to the ground. Multiple bystander videos captured the encounter. The protest had begun in response to ICE's warrantless arrest of a Durango resident and his two children the previous morning.
Border Patrol agents defied supervisor's order to end Chicago car chase, crashed into vehicle at 51 mph
On October 14, 2025, Border Patrol agents Benito Nunez, Carlos Chavira Jr., and Jesus Guillen pursued a fleeing vehicle for 18 minutes through Chicago's East Side neighborhood, disregarding their supervisor's repeated radio orders to stop the chase. The pursuit ended when the agents' vehicle blew a tire and crashed into the fleeing SUV at 51 mph near East 105th Street and South Avenue N — a crash DHS publicly described as an authorized "precision immobilization technique," a claim later-released body-camera footage contradicted.
Border Patrol agent shot Chicago citizen Marimar Martinez five times; DHS's same-day account was contradicted by its own evidence
On October 4, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agent Charles Exum shot Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen and Montessori teaching assistant, five times through her car window in Chicago's Brighton Park after she followed agents' vehicle and honked to warn others of their presence. Hours later DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin publicly said agents had been "rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars" and that Martinez was armed with a "semi-automatic weapon" — claims the next day's criminal complaint, body-camera footage and the agents' own reports did not support. Martinez was charged with assaulting federal officers, the charges were dismissed with prejudice in November 2025, and Exum was placed on paid administrative leave rather than disciplined.
ICE and CBP agents body-slammed 79-year-old U.S. citizen car wash owner during Van Nuys raid, held him nearly 12 hours without medical care
Masked federal agents from ICE, CBP, and DHS raided Valley Car Wash in Van Nuys, Los Angeles on September 9, 2025, and, per surveillance video and the owner's account, body-slammed and restrained 79-year-old U.S. citizen Rafie Ollah Shouhed after he tried to show them his employees' work authorization. Shouhed was handcuffed and held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles for nearly 12 hours without medical attention despite pleading that he had a heart condition, then released without charges. He suffered broken ribs, elbow injuries, and post-concussive symptoms of a traumatic brain injury.
ICE agents falsely charged Francisco Longoria with assaulting officers to cover up their unlawful shooting, jailing him three months
Twelve days after ICE and CBP agents fired at his truck during an unlawful, warrantless stop, federal agents conducted a pre-dawn raid on Francisco Longoria's home on August 28, 2025 and charged him with assault on a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, alleging he had "weaponized" his truck. Longoria, who had no prior criminal record, was held at the Adelanto ICE detention facility for approximately three months. At his bond hearing, the U.S. attorney acknowledged he could not identify any lawful basis for the original stop or any injuries to officers; the felony charge was dropped September 17, 2025, but Longoria remained in immigration detention until early December 2025.
ICE and CBP agents fired three shots at Francisco Longoria's truck during a warrantless San Bernardino stop
On August 16, 2025, ICE and CBP agents in unmarked vehicles stopped Francisco Longoria's work truck in San Bernardino without a warrant or identification, smashed both side windows, and fired three rounds at the vehicle as Longoria drove away in fear for his life. No one was struck. CBP's own use-of-force policy prohibits shooting at a vehicle merely fleeing agents absent a reasonable belief that deadly force is being used against them or others. Longoria's family later sued the government over the shooting as part of a documented pattern of ICE and CBP use-of-force incidents.
U.S. Border Patrol staged politically motivated show of force at Gov. Newsom's press conference
On August 14, 2025, U.S. Border Patrol agents led by Sector Chief Gregory Bovino massed outside a Los Angeles press conference where Gov. Gavin Newsom was announcing California's response to federal redistricting efforts, deploying agents in tactical gear as the event got underway. A Homeland Security Investigations agent later testified under oath, and texted a colleague, that the operation was purely political and a stunt targeting Newsom rather than genuine immigration enforcement, contradicting DHS's contemporaneous denial that agents were focused on Newsom. Court filings unsealed in July 2026, reported by the Los Angeles Times and confirmed by Gov. Newsom's office, corroborated the political motive behind the operation.
CBP and ICE agents detained U.S. citizen and Army veteran George Retes for 72 hours without charge during Camarillo raid
On July 10, 2025, Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained George Retes, a U.S. citizen and disabled Army veteran working as a security guard, as he arrived for his shift at a federal raid on Glass House Farms in Camarillo, California, breaking his car window, pepper-spraying him, and pulling him from the vehicle before holding him roughly 72 hours across three facilities without charge, an attorney, or contact with his family. The Department of Homeland Security said Retes "became violent" and was arrested for assault, but the government never filed a charge and released him on July 13, 2025. Retes sued the United States and individual federal officers in February 2026.
CBP directed airlines to drop X gender markers from pre-departure passenger data, barring non-binary designation for international travelers
On July 7, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a Carrier Liaison Program Bulletin directing all airlines operating international flights to or from the United States to submit only "M" or "F" in the sex field of Advanced Passenger Information System pre-departure data, effectively erasing X gender markers for nonbinary and transgender travelers. Airlines submitting an X in place of a binary marker were required to resubmit, while carriers that substituted M or F for a traveler's actual X passport marker would face no penalty. CBP began enforcing the binary-only requirement on October 14, 2025, after a 90-day informed compliance period.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection revoked security clearances from immigrant airport workers, costing dozens their jobs
Beginning shortly after the January 2025 inauguration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revoked or denied "customs seal" security-clearance renewals for immigrant airport workers holding valid green cards, asylum status, or Temporary Protected Status, despite no change in their immigration status. On June 30, 2025, CBP revoked the seal of Logan International Airport cabin cleaner Saint Paul Paul, a Haitian Temporary Protected Status holder, telling him he posed an "unacceptable risk." At least 80 workers at Logan alone, and hundreds more nationwide, lost their jobs; SEIU Local 32BJ and four affected workers sued the Trump administration over the policy on March 13, 2026.
Border Patrol agents violently arrested Santa Ana landscaper and father of 3 US Marines outside IHOP
On June 21, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents confronted Narciso Barranco, a 49-year-old undocumented landscaper with no criminal record, while he worked outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana, California, tackling him and repeatedly striking him in the head and neck before taking him into custody. Barranco is the father of three U.S. Marines; DHS said he swung a weed trimmer at an agent and resisted commands, while video of the arrest shows no such attack.
White House used unvetted TeleMessage Signal clone for records after Signalgate; May 2025 hack exposed CBP staff data
After the original Signalgate incident exposed deleted official Signal messages in violation of federal records law, senior officials including then-National Security Advisor Mike Waltz adopted TM SGNL, a modified Signal clone from Israeli company TeleMessage, without National Archives review. On May 4-5, 2025, hackers exploited a flaw that routed messages to the vendor's server as plain text, exposing U.S. Customs and Border Protection staff communications and stealing a large cache of files, prompting TeleMessage to suspend service.
CBP agents denied Samuel Tunick a lawyer during a warrantless, pretextual border search targeting his Stop Cop City activism
On January 24, 2025, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents pulled Atlanta activist Samuel Tunick into secondary inspection at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, denied him access to a lawyer despite his requests, and told him no warrant was required because he had not yet formally entered the country. When Tunick entered his phone's passcode, a GrapheneOS duress feature wiped the device; agents seized it regardless. Tunick's attorneys allege the stated child-exploitation-imagery pretext for the stop was fabricated and that CBP was actually investigating his ties to the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement. Federal prosecutors later indicted Tunick under a statute against destroying property to prevent government seizure — the first known federal case charging use of a duress password — and he pleaded not guilty and moved to suppress the evidence, arguing the underlying search was unlawful.
2022 Events (1)
Border Patrol agent shot unarmed teen in Calexico eight times after two prior disciplined civilian shootings
On July 11, 2022, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Marcos Javier Andrade fired eight shots at 19-year-old Anthony Flores during an attempted traffic stop in Calexico, California, striking the unarmed driver in the neck, hip, shoulder, and hand. Flores, who was not engaged in any smuggling activity, survived with permanent disabilities and lasting psychological trauma. Federal prosecutors later revealed Andrade had previously been disciplined twice — in 2012 and 2017 — for firing his weapon at civilians, yet remained on active duty through the date of the 2022 shooting and for nearly four years after it.