> The U.S.-born woman presented ICE and Lafayette sheriff’s deputies with her state-issued ID and Social Security card. ICE detained her anyway. https://thelensnola.org/2026/05/23/u-s-citizen-stopped-in-lafayette-shackled-and-detained-in-louisiana-ice-facility/>On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained a U.S.-born woman at a checkpoint in a residential area of Lafayette. >The young mother of four, who is Spanish-speaking, was already anxious as she approached the checkpoint that morning, because her baby daughter was spiking a high fever. At the agents’ request, she showed her ID and social security card. But they called it fake, and she was detained, handcuffed, shackled at the ankles, interrogated, and ultimately transported to South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile. ICE held here there for about five hours, away from her sick child, and released the woman around 2 a.m. after a lawyer intervened on her behalf.>The woman asked that her name not be published for fear of retaliation against herself and her family.>Her ordeal began early Wednesday morning, as her 7-year-old daughter was waiting for the school bus, when she was alerted to the presence of ICE agents at the entrance to her apartment complex. She wasn’t worried for herself — she was born in Colorado — but she feared that ICE might stop her daughter, who is Mexican-American. >But when the mother approached the checkpoint on foot around 8 a.m., a deputy from the Lafayette Sheriff’s Office waved her over and demanded identification. She presented the deputies with her state-issued Louisiana ID and Social Security card, which she keeps on her at all times.>At first, she wasn’t worried. “I wasn’t hiding anything,” she explained through a translator. “I’m not doing anything illegal.”
>But the deputies looked and insisted that both her ID and Social Security card were fake. They asked her where she was born. She answered their questions, but they soon called over ICE agents, who also accused her of providing a forged ID, she says.>“He said, ‘Who is making these IDs in numbers for you guys? Because I also have another one from another person, and it looks just like this. So they are fake. Yours is fake too.’”>When she tried to speak up and explain, they told her to stay silent.>Detained and interrogated >For the next 20 minutes, she said, the agents had her wait. She saw them talking on the phone — she wasn’t sure if the call was about her — but they kept coming back saying the ID was forged. >Agents then detained her, put her into a white unmarked vehicle, and took her to what appears to be an unlisted U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office in Lafayette. While it is not listed on the USCIS website, two other Lafayette residents confirmed that ICE brings detained people to that office, and that it has government seals on its signage and framed photos of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the wall. >There, she was handcuffed and shackled at the ankles. Agents interrogated her, demanding that she name the person who “did these fake papers for you.”>The woman pleaded with them to contact authorities in Colorado to verify her Social Security card. She even provided additional paperwork from her phone, including tax documents for the IRS.>Her ordeal illustrates how ICE’s aggressive new policies and warrant-less arrests have led to what legal experts say are an alarming pattern of rights violations against both immigrants and U.S. citizens.>The woman was incorrectly assigned an Alien Registration number in 2022 when she entered the U.S. from Mexico and presented a Mexican ID at the border.
>At the time, she was appointed a lawyer who told her that since she was a U.S. citizen, her immigration case would be dropped. Yet somehow, the case appears to have proceeded without her knowledge or involvement. An immigration judge in New Orleans issued a final order of removal in January 2024.>The Lens reviewed a copy of the woman’s ID and was able to quickly confirm its authenticity by entering her name and license number into the state’s official digital credential app, LA Wallet. The app brought up an image of the same ID with her photo, full name, and date of birth, and identifies the ID as valid. >The Lens has also reviewed a copy of the woman’s birth certificate, which lists the same full name and date of birth, and her place of birth in Colorado.>Accusations of forgery seem to have become part of the ICE playbook, especially with Latino people, as recounted by other U.S. citizens who have been detained. “They kept telling me I’m a criminal because I’m showing false papers, and that my penalty was going to be much higher because I’m hiding the person who created them,” the woman said.>That same day, one of the woman’s neighbors began working on her release. The neighbor, who also asked his name be withheld for safety reasons, had watched a sheriff’s bus and unmarked cars without plates begin setting up what appeared to be a checkpoint around 6 a.m. on Wednesday, he said. The checkpoint was at the only entrance to their apartment complex, where most residents are Black and Hispanic, he said.>Few residents wanted to drive through a law-enforcement checkpoint, he said. “People were scared to go to work.”>After hearing that the woman had been wrongly detained, the neighbor, who is also U.S.-born and Latino, sprang into action. He picked up the woman’s birth certificate from her distraught mother, who was “trying hard not to cry in front of her grandchildren,” he said.
>>1516849>The woman was incorrectly assigned an Alien Registration number in 2022 when she entered the U.S. from Mexico and presented a Mexican ID at the border.Uh huh.
>He then made a copy of the birth certificate and brought that to the ICE office. But that still wasn’t enough for the agents. “They said, ‘Oh, we need the original copy…because this could be AI.’”>The neighbor tried to convince them, but stopped when an agent raised his voice in anger and said that they would not be releasing the woman.>>Taken to Basile in shackles>After hours of questioning, ICE transported the shackled young mother to Basile, about an hour away, arriving around 6 p.m. She was processed and booked into the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, which is operated by the private prison company GEO Group.>There she was put inside a shared detention area with people awaiting deportation. “I thought of my kids,” she said. “And my little five-month-old, because she had a high fever.” Before ICE took her, she’d wanted to take the baby to the doctor. Her mother, who was now watching the children, was frightened and would be unable to bring the baby to the hospital if the fever worsened.>“The whole time that I was there, I was just thinking about my kids and being afraid for my little one,” she said. While she was hopeful that she would be released soon, she knew some damage could never be undone. “If something were to happen to my five-month-old, they [ICE] wouldn’t be able to bring her back,” she said.>Immigration attorney Bridget Pranzatelli was able to secure the woman’s release by sending identification documents to ICE over email. Around 2 a.m., about 18 hours after she’d first encountered the deputies, the woman was released. ICE agents drove her back to Lafayette.>She never got an apology, nor an explanation. ICE kept her Social Security card. They also told her she cannot leave the state, she says. Though immigration courts have no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens, ICE officers gave her instructional documents, also reviewed by The Lens.
>One form, labeled “Order of Supervision,” instructs her to report back to ICE in person next month. The other document is a letter about her release, saying that “ICE will continue to make efforts to obtain your travel document that will allow the United States government to carry out your removal.”>The woman plans to go to the ICE check-in accompanied by an immigration lawyer to clarify to the agency that she is in fact a U.S. citizen.>The ordeal suggests serious gaps in ICE’s ability or willingness to investigate people’s immigration status before arresting them, amid what has long been called a “detain first, investigate second” approach. “There is just no justification for a U.S. citizen to be in immigration customs enforcement detention,” Pranzatelli emphasized. >In jurisdictions like Lafayette with 287(g) agreements, “where the local law enforcement ends up getting deputized to do these federal immigration enforcement functions,” that risk of unjustified detentions is heightened, Pranzatelli said. “No one along that chain is doing the due diligence necessary to be sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen.”>>Local law enforcement often lacks immigration expertise>Lafayette Parish Sheriff Mark Garber has praised his department’s partnership with ICE — specifically noting that it would help his deputies quickly determine a person’s immigration status. But there is little to back his claims that the partnership enhances public safety. Research instead shows that involving local law enforcement in federal immigration matters puts public safety at risk by making undocumented victims less likely to report crimes, for fear of being asked about their immigration status.
>That should matter in Lafayette Parish, in the heart of Cajun country, which has become the fastest-growing place in the state thanks to both domestic and international migration, Census data shows. Lafayette’s growth makes it an outlier in Louisiana, which is grappling with severe population decline.>But in December, the Lafayette sheriff’s office entered a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which empowers deputies to detain individuals suspected of immigration infractions, even if they aren’t suspected of having committed a crime. Over the last year, sheriff’s offices across the state have signed agreements with ICE. Sheriff Garber opted to partner with ICE under the “warrant service officer and task force models,” a particularly aggressive form of the partnership, which allows specially trained deputies to arrest people suspected of immigration offenses, according to The Current, an online newsroom in Lafayette. >The task force program has been criticized for encouraging racial profiling. The 287(g) agreement has faced significant pushback from religious and civil rights leaders and sparked protests in Lafayette. >The task force program is what allowed sheriff’s deputies to work alongside ICE agents to create the checkpoint that resulted in the woman’s arrest.>When reached for comment Friday, Staff Sgt. Chris Cormier of the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the “interaction” took place. But he incorrectly maintained that the woman’s ID was fake. Some of his claims about other key details were also inconsistent with The Lens’ findings.>“She approached our deputies with her phony ID,” Cormier said. “She approached us, okay? She approached us. She had a fake ID.” When asked how deputies made that determination, he said that “our databases will tell us that it’s fake or not.”
>When asked why deputies then handed her over to ICE, Cormier said it was “because she couldn’t prove her citizenship.” He claimed that “a lot of people a lot of times have forged IDs, and they try to bamboozle us.” Since Lafayette is a college town that presumably sees its share of underage drinking, The Lens asked whether it was standard practice to transfer all people with suspected fake IDs into ICE custody. >“On occasion we can do that, and have,” Cormier said.>The office’s new federal partnership with ICE made the woman’s detention possible, he said. “That’s part of what the 287(g) program allows, is when you can’t determine someone’s citizenship, we can contact ICE and they can further investigate.” ICE should have determined the woman’s citizenship status before detaining her in a facility, he said.>Despite the woman’s release and proof of life-long citizenship, Cormier seemed to maintain, incorrectly, that she was deportable. “If I’m not mistaken, she was already deported a time before,” he told The Lens.>This is untrue. U.S. citizens cannot be legally deported.>Deputies go through an online training put on by the Office of Homeland Security to take part in the task force partnership with ICE, Cormier said. ICE did not respond to a media inquiry about the situation by press time.>The woman plans to pursue a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office and ICE. “My kids have trauma,” she said.alright, that was a lot to copy paste. but thats the end of the article
>>1516856>>This is untrue. U.S. citizens cannot be legally deported.They can if they've committed immigration fraud.Regardless, illegals can acquire false documents on the black market relatively easily. Especially after that big data breach recently.
>>1516857you are a fascist faggot
>>1516858Okay, I'm a fascist I guess. What now?
>>1516857she was born in the usa
>>1516859Now you lick some boots and your community continues to shun you
>>1516857So what you're saying is the next administration can't be sure you're legal?
>>1516870I'm white, I'd pass.
>>1516848>Who is Spanish-Speaking...And there it is. There are no actual Americans who speak Spanish. We don't need to, we already speak the only language that matters - English. Send the bitch home and all her kids.
>>1516875she was born in the usa
>>1516875>weesl shill...
>>1516875who are ted cruz and marco rubio?
>>1516848Good.
>>1516876Why lie on the Internet, why lie in a thread that proves you're lying?"The woman was incorrectly assigned an Alien Registration number in 2022 when she entered the U.S. from Mexico and presented a Mexican ID at the border."
>>1516881esl shill, read the first sentence of the thread please
>>1516848>The LensSound like fake and gay progressive bullshit.>The woman asked that her name not be published for fear of retaliation against herself and her family.Ah, so it is fake and gay.
>>1516881Read the the article before asking stupid questions.>>1516851>>The Lens has also reviewed a copy of the woman’s birth certificate, which lists the same full name and date of birth, and her place of birth in Colorado.
>>1516884>>The woman asked that her name not be published for fear of retaliation against herself and her family.>Ah, so it is fake and gay.how does that mean its fake?
>>1516885it's a shill, its whole job is to say stupid things
>>1516881also people can inherit mexican citizenship without being born in mexico. If one of your parents is mexican you get citizenship.Just like how you can still inherit american citizenship without being born in the usa.
>>1516886Fake and gay.
>>1516887i dont think anyones getting paid to shill on /news/. They're displaying authentic retardation, not paid stupidity.
>>1516891there are definitely shills here, as well as just about anywhere one can post on the internet. the internet is dead after all
>>1516886>how does that mean its fake?It reminds me of the time the 12 year old had to travel to another state, according to the jewish abortion doctor, but it turns out her mother's boyfriend knocked her up so she went to a different state to avoid rape reporting laws and protect her boyfriend.
>>1516893you remind me of a faggot
>>1516892Indeed. They're usually liggeral shills. I can't say I've seen too many non-liggerals shilling.
>>1516895you're projecting again
>>1516894Lol he mad I brought up and old piece of key propaganda.
>>1516896Bish mad.
>>1516893>It reminds me of the time the 12 year old had to travel to another state, according to the jewish abortion doctor, but it turns out her mother's boyfriend knocked her up so she went to a different state to avoid rape reporting laws and protect her boyfriend.Wrong:>Bernard and her attorneys maintain that the doctor followed Indiana’s child abuse reporting requirements as the girl’s rape was already being investigated by Ohio authorities. Bernard’s lawyers also say she didn’t release any identifying information about the girl that would break privacy laws.https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/state/indiana-doctor-faces-discipline-hearing-over-10-year-old-ohio-girls-abortion
>>1516895Speaking of liggerals shilling.>Open Society Foundations>Beyond Petrochemicals of Resources Legacy Fund, and made possible by support from BloombergInteresting list of donors The Lens has, huh?https://thelensnola.org/members-and-donors/
>>1516900you sure love logical fallacies
>>1516892perhaps theres news articles that get posted here by shilla, but they'd dip after that. i dont think this guy is one of the shills. he acts more like a local board schizo than a shill. actual shills aren't going to argue with people on a dead board, they'd spam their propaganda and move on.but it doesn't really matter
>>1516899>I didn't follow up!!>the licensing board took up the matter, and voted to issue a letter of reprimand and impose a fine of US$3,000Oh no no no.
>>1516901Hello billionaire-eater. Have you eaten any billionaire's (cum) lately?
>>1516904oh my, copying me again. thanks for the flattery esl shill
>>1516893>>1516903Wrong.They fined her because she talked about patients to the media which may have been a violation of patient privacy. The board rejected the allegation that she failed to report the abuse.>The licensing board decided that in seeking penalties for Bernard, the state met its burden in three counts, which deal with privacy, but the group rejected two others that dealt with reporting child abuse and being unfit to practice.https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/indiana-doctor-gave-10-year-old-girl-abortion-disciplinary-hearing-rcna86214https://indianacapitalchronicle.com/briefs/indiana-medical-licensing-board-finalizes-ruling-that-bernard-violated-patient-privacy-laws/
>>1516906Oh well, it was still a key piece of propaganda.
>>1516848she was probably a terrorist cell waiting to trigger. who wants to bet her socials are all about wanting to unalive people who aren't with her.
America is a monkey with a machine gun
Well don't you knowThat's the sound of the menWorking on the detain gangThat's the sound of the menWorking on the detain gang[All day long they work so hardTill the sun is going downWorking on the tomato fields and bywaysAnd wearing, wearing a frownYou hear them moaning their lives awayThen you hear somebody say;THIS AINT AMERICA!https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zBn5aIfZElE
>>1516926>America is a monkey with a machine gunand we have "their" banana
40 years and she never learned English. I think she won't miss America and America won't miss her.
>>1516878Foreign invaders.
>>1516962This. Fucking this.
>>1516962Probably has a fake birth certificate.
>>1516962>>1516972>>1516979you know it's really obvious when you talk to yourself like this
>>1516981>I can't believe not everyone is a huge fucking crippled retard like me
>>1516962>>1516979why she get released then?
>>1516983yes, you.
>>1516986>At the time, she was appointed a lawyer who told her that since she was a U.S. citizen, her immigration case would be dropped. Yet somehow, the case appears to have proceeded without her knowledge or involvement. An immigration judge in New Orleans issued a final order of removal in January 2024.>One form, labeled “Order of Supervision,” instructs her to report back to ICE in person next month. The other document is a letter about her release, saying that “ICE will continue to make efforts to obtain your travel document that will allow the United States government to carry out your removal.”Cause that's what the government does until removal of an illegal alien with forged documents?
>>1516848If the government can do this to a citizen, then nobody has citizenship anymore.
>>1517001Just wait until Trump's antisemitism task force starts putting bigots in the same ICE camps.
>>1517008Meh big concern given 1a exists.So it's ok to had the Jews now, huh?
>>1517012Gas the jews. Stupid fucking phone posting
>>1517008Put some quotes around “antisemitism” and “bigots” and you’ve got the right idea.
>>1517001There are no Mexican citizens of America. There are only Mexican invaders that need to be sent home.
>>1517033That's objectively not true. She is an American citizen, this is her home.
>>1516886No it means that she knows retards are going to harass her and her family
>>1517035Bullshit.How can someone be born in the US and go through grade school, and decades of living without speaking English.That's the biggest flaw in her born in the USA story. There's likely more flaws and that's why she doesn't want to be identified.
>>1517056Large parts of the south western US from Texas to California are Spanish first speaking areas because they use to be part of Mexico. Same way you have a lot of French first people in Louisiana.
>>1517056NTA but there are towns in America that only speak German. They are filled with native born Americans that have existed here for 100+ years.That's only the language though. Most white Americans don't have a foreign ID on them. It's also tragically easy to buy a fake ID + SS on the black market.
>>1517056Lol do you live in ohio or something or are you not from the us?
>>1517012>Meh big concern given 1a exists.They don't care about the other ammendments. like the 4th:https://reason.com/2026/01/26/leaked-ice-memo-claims-agents-can-enter-homes-without-judicial-warrants/
>>1517069I don't care how they get rid of illegals and you can't persuade me otherwise.Fuckers have been sheltering illegals for over a decade, taking up the mantle of the Republicans from the 90s.
>>1517061>It's also tragically easy to buy a fake ID + SS on the black market.You can't just assume that. If you do then IDs and SSs become meaningless. >>1517122You're not American.
>>1517124>You're not American.Even if, there's still no reason for them aside from cheap labor, stealing tax dollars via public services funding billionaires, and of course more congressional seats for sanctuary states.So, eat a whole turd, faggot.
>>1517122>I don't care how they get rid of illegals and you can't persuade me otherwise.So you'd be fine if we just nuked ourselves?
