NEW YORK — A 23-year-old U.S. citizen is speaking out after being unlawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Long Island, calling the experience “heartbreaking” and accusing the agents of acting like “criminals.”
Elzon Lemus, a Hispanic resident of Brentwood, New York, recounted his experience during a press conference Thursday, where his attorneys also released video footage of the incident. The video appears to show ICE agents stopping a car in Westbury around 7:30 a.m., despite having no clear legal basis to do so.
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- 1 ‘You Look Like Someone’: The Timeline
- 2 ‘This Is Not America’: Legal and Political Fallout
- 3 Nationwide Context: Raids and Rhetoric
- 4 Legal Experts Weigh In
- 5 A Call for Oversight
“They said they’re looking for criminals, but in reality, they’re the criminals,” Lemus said. “It felt like my rights were just out the window.”
‘You Look Like Someone’: The Timeline
Lemus, a passenger in the car on his way to work, said he began filming when multiple unmarked cars surrounded the vehicle. Men wearing vests marked “ICE” and “HSI” (Homeland Security Investigations) told him he matched the description of someone they were looking for.
“I asked them for their names and badge numbers. They told me, ‘We’re not authorized to give that information,’” Lemus said.
In response, Lemus refused to hand over his ID. “I wasn’t driving. I hadn’t committed any crime. Why would I show them my ID?” he said. Moments later, one agent reached into the vehicle, opened the door, and handcuffed him without explanation.
Lemus was held for 20–25 minutes as the agents confiscated his phone and searched his pockets, eventually discovering his U.S. identification card. He was released without charges.
‘This Is Not America’: Legal and Political Fallout
Lemus’s attorney, Fred Brewington, condemned the stop as a blatant violation of civil rights and called for a federal investigation.
“This is not America,” Brewington said. “This is not how we as Americans should have to live.”
Brewington emphasized that no reasonable suspicion or probable cause was presented at any point, and Lemus was detained solely based on appearance.
State Assemblyman Philip Ramos, a former police detective, also joined the call for an inquiry, denouncing the incident as racial profiling. “This cannot be ignored,” he said.
The Nassau County Police Department confirmed it had no involvement in the stop and directed all questions to ICE. As of Thursday night, ICE had not responded to media requests for comment.
Nationwide Context: Raids and Rhetoric
The incident comes amid a broader surge in ICE enforcement under the Trump administration. According to internal documents and policy statements, the agency has faced pressure from top officials to dramatically ramp up arrests.
Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s immigration policies, stated late last month that ICE should target at least 3,000 arrests per day. This would represent a nearly fivefold increase from the agency’s average of 656 daily arrests between January 20 and May 19.
Protests have erupted nationwide in response to federal immigration raids, particularly as reports grow of mistaken detentions, warrantless stops, and racially motivated profiling. Civil rights groups say Lemus’s case is emblematic of a broader pattern of abuse.
“This is exactly why communities fear ICE. They’re acting as if they are above the law,” said a spokesperson from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) in a separate statement.
Legal Experts Weigh In
Legal scholars say the situation raises serious Fourth Amendment concerns.
“ICE cannot detain individuals without probable cause,” said Prof. Rachel O’Brien, an expert in constitutional law at Columbia University. “A person’s ethnic appearance or language is not enough to justify a stop, let alone a detention.”
O’Brien said if Lemus’s rights were violated, he may have grounds for a civil lawsuit under the Federal Tort Claims Act or Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act.
A Call for Oversight
Lemus’s attorneys say they will pursue legal remedies and urge Congress and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties to open an investigation.
“We can’t let ICE operate like a rogue agency,” said Brewington. “This is someone who woke up early, got in a car to go to work, and got treated like a criminal — for what? For being brown in the wrong zip code?”
As ICE continues to escalate operations under President Trump’s renewed immigration push, civil rights watchdogs warn that cases like Lemus’s may become more frequent — unless checks are put in place to protect the constitutional rights of all U.S. citizens, regardless of appearance or background.
