ICE Agents Raid Home, Force Family Out in Their Underwear: ‘Traumatized’

Federal immigration authorities seized a family of U.S. citizen’s phones, laptops, and life savings in Oklahoma City, before forcing them to stand outside in the rain in their underwear.

Newsweek has contacted the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment.

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.

What To Know

The woman, identified by Nexstar’s KFOR as “Marisa,” had recently moved with her family from Maryland to Oklahoma City, arriving just two weeks earlier.

On Thursday, April 24, around 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, 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 individuals 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.

What People Are Saying

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 had confiscated.