Michigan DNR officers stopped Detroit father on pretext of fishing-license check, delivering him to ICE custody

On October 18, 2025, Michigan Department of Natural Resources officers stopped Detroit resident Jose Pedro Hernandez Lupercio — a Mexican citizen with no convictions, married with three U.S.-citizen children — while he was fishing with his sons on the Manistee River in Brethren, Michigan. The stop, which lawyers from the Southwest Detroit Immigrant and Refugee Center said began as what appeared to be a routine fishing-license check, ended with Hernandez Lupercio's transfer into ICE custody.

DHS said the arrest was made "during a targeted operation led by the USFS in conjunction with the DNR." DNR has given a conflicting account, telling Michigan Advance its officers "were on site at the location that day conducting fishing license checks," that a U.S. Forest Service officer was the one who contacted Hernandez Lupercio, and that DNR "did not initiate this action" and were "not present to enforce federal immigration laws." That account is contradicted by a federal habeas corpus ruling from Judge Paul L. Maloney in the Western District of Michigan, which recounts that Hernandez Lupercio was "stopped by agents of the Department of Natural Resources ... while fishing with his sons in the Manistee River," and that when he "could not prove to the DNR agents that he was legally present in the United States," the DNR agents contacted ICE, which then took him into custody. Other filings in his habeas case, including briefs from his legal team and a response from Justice Department attorneys, similarly reference DNR's presence at the stop.

Michigan Immigrant Rights Center policy manager Christine Sauvé noted there is no formal cooperation agreement between Michigan state law enforcement and ICE that would have required DNR to take part in the arrest, and Michigan is not a "sanctuary state," so state agencies face no legal bar on assisting federal immigration enforcement even without such an agreement. Hernandez Lupercio was held at the privately run North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan, on $7,000 bond; his underlying case remains active and pending.

Updates

2026-02 — Released on bond [1]

Hernandez Lupercio was released from ICE custody in February 2026 after posting the $7,000 bond set in his case.