Blumenthal & Robert Garcia Demand Noem Provide Information on CBP & ICE's Detention of U.S. Citizens

[WASHINGTON, DC] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, wrote Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refused to provide information on the number of U.S. citizens who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

In an interview on October 30, Noem stated that “[t]here’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained.” This statement has been repeatedly disproven by public reporting; and, in fact, Noem was present at an immigration raid in Illinois where two U.S. citizens were detained.

“Your false statement denying that any detentions of U.S. citizens have occurred makes your failure to provide any of the information requested by our inquiry particularly concerning,” the members wrote. “This failure also goes against your own commitments at the time of your confirmation to work with Congress. We expect not only a full response to our request, but that DHS begin tracking comprehensive information on how many U.S. citizens it detains—for any period of time and for whatever reason—and provide updates to our committees on a regular basis.”

On October 20, Blumenthal and Garcia opened an inquiry into the increasing detention of U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents. In a letter to Noem, Blumenthal and Garcia demanded information and records from the agency following increasingly frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions of U.S. citizens by agents of ICE and CBP, often using disproportionate force.

The full text of Blumenthal and Garcia’s letter to Noem on October 20 letter is available here. The full text of the November 17 letter to Noem is available here and copied below.

Dear Secretary Noem:

On October 20, 2025, we wrote to you regarding the disturbing and increasingly frequent reports of unconstitutional detentions of U.S. citizens by agents of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).^[1] Among other requests, our letter asked that you provide information on the number of U.S. citizens that have been detained by ICE and CBP during this Administration, and provided a response deadline of November 3.^[2] Your failure to provide any response whatsoever by the stated deadline is troubling and appears to indicate that DHS does not know how many U.S. citizens are being swept up in its reckless immigration enforcement.

Our concern over your failure to respond is compounded by your recent falsehood regarding the detention of U.S. citizens. In an interview on October 30, you stated that “[t]here’s no American citizens that have been arrested or detained. We focus on those that are here illegally. And anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true.”^[3] What is particularly concerning about this false statement is that you were present at an immigration raid in Illinois a month before this interview, where two U.S. citizens were detained.^[4] In addition, multiple news organizations have reported on and spoken with dozens of U.S. citizens who have been detained by federal immigration officials.^[5] New reports of additional U.S. citizen detentions have emerged regularly since ProPublica found on October 16 that more than 170 U.S. citizens had been detained in the Trump Administration’s immigration raids.^[6] Given these facts, you will not be able to mislead the American people about the results of the Trump Administration’s reckless immigration enforcement efforts.

Your false statement denying that any detentions of U.S. citizens have occurred makes your failure to provide any of the information requested by our inquiry particularly concerning. This failure also goes against your own commitments at the time of your confirmation to work with Congress.^[7] We expect not only a full response to our request, but that DHS begin tracking comprehensive information on how many U.S. citizens it detains—for any period of time and for whatever reason—and provide updates to our committees on a regular basis.

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