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

Court paperwork reveal that immigration officers saved a 19-year-old U.S. citizen from New Mexico behind bars for round 10 days till a decide granted his launch Thursday.

The teen, Jose Hermosillo, informed native information station AZPM that he and his girlfriend had been visiting household in Tucson, Arizona, earlier than the incident. He informed the outlet that, at one level, he received misplaced on foot, and that’s when Border Patrol picked him up.

The mistaken arrest comes as President Donald Trump’s ongoing assault on all types of immigration has led to stories of mistaken detentions and a minimum of one mistaken deportation.

The particulars of Hermosillo’s story are scant and conflicting: A legal criticism says that the officers detained him close to Nogales, Arizona, which is round an hour south of Tucson by automotive. But Hermosillo informed AZPM that he had by no means been to Nogales.

The criticism states that the teenager 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 in opposition to Hermosillo throughout a morning listening to final Thursday.

Grace Leyva, an aunt of Hermosillo’s girlfriend, informed AZPM that members of the family needed to produce his start certificates and Social Security card for officers as proof of his identification as an American.

“He did say he was a U.S. citizen, but they didn’t believe him,” Leyva informed 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 data state that Hermosillo was requested whether or not he needed to proceed in English or Spanish in courtroom, and selected English.

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

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