Cases of civilians posing as ICE agents to detain migrants are on the rise

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-04-10/cases-of-civilians-posing-as-ice-agents-to-detain-migrants-are-on-the-rise.html



Cases of civilians posing as ICE agents to detain migrants are on the rise
A man has been arrested in Florida for impersonating a federal agent after chasing two Latinos who refused to prove their immigration status

It was almost 3 a.m. In a small town called Indiantown, southeast Florida, two Latino migrants were riding in a van on their way to work when a man in a gray pickup truck approached them. The man, wearing pajama pants, a cap on backward, a sweatshirt, and a gold chain, claimed to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and demanded the two men show him their identification. The alleged immigration agent also demanded that the workers prove their immigration status to determine whether they were undocumented or not. After threatening to deport them, the migrants suspected the man wasn’t who he claimed to be, drove off,

The reality is that the individual, identified by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office as José Juan Lopez, does not and has never worked for ICE or any other law enforcement agency. Lopez is a 23-year-old man with a criminal record, including charges for possession of a controlled substance, violation of probation, child abuse, and domestic assault. On April 3, he became the latest civilian to pose as an immigration officer to terrify the community amid Donald Trump’s anti-immigration crusade.




Although immigration officials have increasingly been wearing plain clothes when making arrests, the two migrants became suspicious of the man as the interaction unfolded. “They obviously knew something was up. They don’t normally see ICE agents dressed in pajama pants or just jumping out randomly without some sort of real hardcore identification,” Commander Ruben Romero of the county sheriff’s office told local media.

According to Lopez’s arrest affidavit, when the migrants attempted to flee from him in their vehicle, the suspect followed them “for several blocks,” eventually ending up in the parking lot of a local supermarket, where he chased them in circles until authorities arrived. At the time of his arrest, Lopez told officers that he was the victim in this case and that the men who called 911 were actually threatening him, according to body camera video from one of the officers present, which was released to local television station WPBF 25 News.