A New Mexico teen was recently detained by immigration agents on a recent visit to Tucson, Arizona and held for nearly 10 days after being accused of entering the U.S. unlawfully. The teen is a U.S. citizen.
Jose Hermosillo, a 19-year-old New Mexico resident, was detained in Nogales, Arizona, a city along the Mexico border about an hour south of Tucson. Court documents allege that he unlawfully entered the country from Mexico and was found "without the proper immigration documents." The complaint, filed on April 8, claimed the young American had admitted entering the U.S. unauthorized from Mexico.
Hermosillo and his girlfriend, who have a 9-month-old child together, live in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and were visiting family in Tucson.
Arizona Public Media reported that Hermosillo was lost and walking near the Border Patrol headquarters when he was detained. At the time, he did not have identification on him and denied being in Nogales, the report says.
Hermosillo's girlfriend's aunt, Grace Layva, said the family learned that he was being detained in Florence Correctional Center in Arizona and gave officials his social security card and birth certificate. She added that the teen told agents that he was from the U.S., but "they didn't believe him."
"I think they would have kept him. I think they would have if they would have not got that information yesterday in the court and gave that to ICE and the Border Patrol," she said. "He probably would have been deported already to Mexico."
A magistrate judge in Tucson dismissed his case without prejudice last Thursday, and family says he was released much later that night, NBC News reports. He was detained by agents for nearly 10 days.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said his arrest "was the direct result of Hermosillo's own actions and statements."
"The narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false," she said Monday in a post on X.
McLaughlin said Hermosillo approached border patrol agents in Tucson, stated that he had "illegally" entered the country through Nogales, and wanted to turn himself in and complete "a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully."
"He was processed and appeared in court on April 11. Afterward, he was held by the U.S. Marshals in Florence, AZ. A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship," McLaughlin said. "The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family."
Hermosillo's wrongful arrest and prolonged detention comes amid escalating attacks by the Trump administration on immigrants in the U.S. He is also not the first individual who has been mistakenly taken into custody.
Most notably, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant residing in Maryland was mistakenly taken to El Salvador's controversial mega-prison. His case has gathered media attention, particularly after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had to facilitate his return. Since then, Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's administrations have refused to do so.
"Under the Trump administration's theory of the law, the government could have banished this U.S. citizen to a Salvadoran prison then refused to do anything to bring him back," Mark Joseph Stern, a legal analyst for Slate, wrote on Bluesky. "This is why the Constitution guarantees due process to all. Could it be more obvious?"
© 2025 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
