19-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Held For Around 10 Days After Border Mix-Up

Court documents reveal that immigration officials kept a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from New Mexico behind bars for around 10 days until a judge granted his release Thursday.

The teen, Jose Hermosillo, told local news station AZPM that he and his girlfriend had been visiting family in Tucson, Arizona, before the incident. He told the outlet that, at one point, he got lost on foot, and that’s when Border Patrol picked him up.

The mistaken arrest comes as President Donald Trump’s ongoing assault on all forms of immigration has led to reports of mistaken detentions and at least one mistaken deportation.

The details of Hermosillo’s story are scant and conflicting: A criminal complaint says that the officers detained him near Nogales, Arizona, which is around an hour south of Tucson by car. But Hermosillo told AZPM that he had never been to Nogales.

The complaint states that the teen was detained April 8 after “admitt[ing] to illegally entering the United States of America from Mexico on or about April 7, 2025, at or near Nogales, Arizona at a time or place other than as designated by immigration officials.” It describes him as “a citizen of Mexico.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Maria S. Aguilera dismissed the case against Hermosillo during a morning hearing last Thursday.

Grace Leyva, an aunt of Hermosillo’s girlfriend, told AZPM that family members had to produce his birth certificate and Social Security card for officials as proof of his identity as an American.

“He did say he was a U.S. citizen, but they didn’t believe him,” Leyva told the outlet.

“I think they would have kept him,” she went on. “I think they would have if they would have not got that information yesterday in the court and gave that to ICE and the Border Patrol. He probably would have been deported already to Mexico.”

Court records state that Hermosillo was asked whether he wanted to proceed in English or Spanish in court, and chose English.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, said on social media that “the narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false.”

He had actually “wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully,” she claimed, adding, “This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo’s own actions and statements.”