Durbin Investigates Arrests Of U.S. Citizens By President Trump’s Out-Of-Control Immigration Forces

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today launched an investigation into thereportedarrests of U.S. citizens under the Trump Administration’s violent immigration enforcement agenda. In a letter to Secretary Noem, Durbin called out the dangerous and reckless enforcement actions, including arrests and detentions of U.S. citizens and targeting of minorities in cities like Chicago.
Durbin began by citing Secretary Noem’sblatant falsehoodat a recent press conference, writing:“You recently stated in a news conference:‘There’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.’ This statement is patently false. The disturbing reality is that many American citizens have been caught in the Trump Administration’s indiscriminate and violent immigration enforcement dragnet across the country.”
Durbin then highlighted the known wrongful detentions of the Trump Administration’s immigration crackdown, writing:“In the first nine months of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, at least 170 citizens were wrongfully detained. As of mid-October, approximately two dozen U.S. citizens had been held for more than a day without being able to contact anyone, including their lawyers. The numbers continue to grow. My staff has documented the reported detention of at least 40 U.S. citizens in Illinois alone between late August and early November 2025. Since the President ramped up his militarized immigration raids in the Chicagoland area, arrests of U.S. citizens have occurred with increasing frequency.”
Durbin then connected the aggression against U.S. citizens with a recent Supreme Court ruling, writing:“The Supreme Court recently stayed a district court order that had prohibited federal immigration enforcement agents from stopping individuals based on factors such as their race or ethnicity and the type of job they appeared to work. The Court’s decision, coupled with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol’s indiscriminate enforcement tactics, have left Black and Brown Americans justifiably afraid that they will be targeted for immigration stops—now frequently referred to as ‘Kavanaugh stops.’”
Durbin concluded by admonishing the Trump Administration’s gutting of offices ensuring accountability for these matters that necessitates Congressional oversight before making a series of information requests, writing:“To worsen matters, DHS has gutted offices responsible for overseeing ICE officers’ conduct and ensuring accountability for unlawful arrests and detention. Congressional oversight is thus critical to evaluate the impact of this Administration’s immigration enforcement tactics on U.S. citizens and whether ICE and CBP have taken steps to address longstanding problems regarding the collection of data about U.S. citizens.”
For a PDF of the letter to Secretary Noem, clickhere.
In response to the Trump Administration’s surge in federal law enforcement in Chicago and continuous threats to deploy the military in the area, Durbin has taken a number of steps to push back on these unlawful actions carried out by DHS and Secretary Noem under the direction of President Trump.
Durbin has taken the following actions to push back on the Trump Administration’s so-called “Operation Midway Blitz”:
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