A Virginia man may be regretting his recent vote for President Donald Trump after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents—despite being an American citizen.
“I was a Trump supporter,” said 38-year-old Jensy Machado, who was stopped and handcuffed by ICE in Manassas, Va., on Wednesday. “I voted for Trump last election, but, because I thought it was going to be like… [going] against criminals, not every Hispanic, Spanish lookalike.”
Machado was driving to work with two other men when ICE suddenly stopped him a stone’s throw from his home. Agents surrounded his truck and got out of the car, brandishing guns.
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The officers ordered him to turn the car off and give them the keys. Everything went extremely fast, Machado said, and it was hard to understand what was happening.
The agents told Machado the name of a man they were looking for, but it wasn’t Machado. In fact, he didn’t know anyone by that name.
“They didn’t ask me for any ID,” Machado told Telemundo 44. He told the agent that he could provide his Virginia driver’s license, but the officer refused to look. He forced Machado to keep his hands up and not move.
“After that, he told me to get out of the car and put the handcuffs on me,” Machado said.
The officers asked Machado how he got into the country.
“I told him I was an American citizen, and he looked at his other partner like, you know, smiling, like saying, ‘Can you believe this guy?’” Machado said.
The first officer asked his partner whether he believed Machado.
The two men with Machado were taken into custody, but he doesn’t know why. He was released after finally being able to show his driver’s license.
Machado was a Trump supporter. Now, his faith in the administration has dwindled.
“They will assume that we are all illegals,” he said, adding that he thought the administration would go after criminals. “They’re just following Hispanic people.”
Racial profiling fears have escalated as ICE raids have mistakenly ensnared U.S. citizens, including Native Americans. Since Trump’s first day in office, the Navajo Nation Office has been flooded with calls from off-reservation tribal members who claim they have been interrogated by ICE. Other U.S. citizens have also reported being unfairly detained, including one military veteran.
The veteran told NBC at the time that he “suffered the indignity of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned.”
ICE has stated that they may “request identification” from U.S. citizens while conducting raids.
ICE did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment.
It isn’t the first time that U.S. citizens have been detained—or even deported—under Trump. From October 2015 to March 2020, ICE arrested 674 potential U.S. citizens, detained 121, and removed 70, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report.
GAO also found that ICE had issued detainers and asked local jurisdictions to hold nearly 900 people who had been arrested for other crimes during that period, all while being unclear whether they were immigrants or U.S. citizens. It eventually canceled about 74 percent of the detainers.
Despite promises to prioritize violent criminals, ICE is also apprehending many people who have nonviolent offenses on their record or people who have not committed any offense. They made nearly 1,200 arrests in a single day in late January, only a week after Trump took office. Half of those detained didn’t have criminal records.
It is only a felony to re-enter or attempt to re-enter the country after being deported. It is a civil violation to be in the U.S. without legal status, and a misdemeanor to enter the country without inspection, between ports of entry, or based on false statements.
Border czar Tom Homan said that collateral arrests were par for the course, and that they would likely continue as ICE actions escalate nationwide.
