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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Federal immigration authorities seized a family of U.S. citizens' phones, laptops and life savings in Oklahoma City before forcing them to stand outside in the rain in their underwear, a family member said.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) acknowledged that the previous tenants were the intended targets of the enforcement operation.
"The search warrants included the location of an address where U.S. citizens recently moved. The previous residents were the intended targets," a senior DHS official told Newsweek.
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Why It Matters
President Donald Trump has pledged to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. His administration's hard-line agenda and ICE's aggressive approach have sparked concern among immigrant communities.
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What To Know
The woman, identified by Nexstar's KFOR as "Marisa," had moved with her family from Maryland to Oklahoma City just two weeks earlier.
On Thursday, April 24, about 20 armed agents stormed the property.
"I don't know who they were," Marisa told KFOR. "It was dark. All the lights were off."
Marisa said the men claimed to be federal agents from the U.S. Marshals Service, ICE and the FBI.
"I keep asking them, 'Who are you? What are you doing here? What's happening?'" Marisa said. "And they said, 'We have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.'"
The woman said the agents had a search warrant for the home, but the people named in it do not live there.
Marisa said the agents forced her and her daughters outside into the rain before they had a chance to get dressed.
"They wanted me to change in front of all of them, in between all of them," she said. "My husband has not even seen my daughter in her undergarments—her own dad, because it's respectful. You have her out there, a minor, in her underwear."
Marisa discovered that the names on the search warrant didn't belong to her or anyone in her family. Instead, she recognized them from mail still being delivered to the house—likely addressed to former residents.
"We just moved here from Maryland," Marisa said. "We're citizens. That's what I kept saying. 'We're citizens.'"
"They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless," she added. "I kept pleading. I kept telling them we weren't criminals. They were treating us like criminals. We were here by ourselves. We didn't do anything."
Marisa said the agents searched the entire house and went through their belongings, ultimately seizing their phones, laptops and their entire cash savings as "evidence."
"I told them before they left, I said, 'You took my phone. We have no money. I just moved here,'" she said. "'I have to feed my children. I'm going to need gas money. I need to be able to get around.' Like, how do you just leave me like this? Like an abandoned dog."
Marisa said her family is now left with virtually nothing. Her husband had remained in Maryland for a few additional weeks and was planning to join them later that weekend.
A senior DHS official said that ICE conducted a court-approved search warrant as part of a large-scale human smuggling investigation.
The search warrants targeted locations, including an address where U.S. citizens had recently moved, with the previous residents being the main focus of the investigation.
As a result of the investigation, eight Guatemalan nationals were indicted for their alleged involvement in smuggling undocumented immigrants into the U.S. Two of those indicted have prior criminal convictions, including charges related to narcotics possession, identity fraud, money laundering and reentry after deportation, according to DHS.
The case is being prosecuted in the Northern District of Oklahoma.
What People Are Saying
A senior DHS official told Newsweek: "ICE was carrying out a court authorized search warrant for a large-scale human smuggling investigation."
Marissa told KFOR: "What if I would have been armed?" she said. "You're breaking in. What am I supposed to think? My initial thought was we were being robbed—that my daughters, being females, were being kidnapped. You have guns pointed in our faces. Can you just reprogram yourself and see us as humans, as women? A little bit of mercy. Care a little bit about your fellow human, about your fellow citizen, fellow resident.
"We bleed, too. We work. We bleed just like anybody else bleeds. We're scared. You could see our faces that we were terrified. What makes you so much more worthier of your peace? What makes you so much more worthier of protecting your children? What makes you so much more worthy of your citizenship? What makes you more worthy of safety, of being given the right that they took from me to protect my daughters?"
What Happens Next
Marisa told KFOR that the agents refused to provide a business card and gave her no information or contacts about how to retrieve the items they confiscated.
Update 4/30/25, 9:30 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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