'We're citizens!': Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren't suspects
By: Spencer Humphrey/KFOR (KFOR. com Oklahoma City)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A woman says her family's fresh start in Oklahoma turned into a nightmare after federal immigration agents raided their home, taking their phones, laptops, and life savings - even though they were not the suspects the agents were looking for.
The agents had a search warrant for the home, but the suspects listed on the warrant do not live in the house.
The woman who actually lives in the house had just moved to Oklahoma City from Maryland with her family about two weeks earlier.
The woman, who News 4 will refer to as "Marisa", and her three daughters came to Oklahoma looking for a slower, more affordable pace of life.
They rented a house in a seemingly safe northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood.
Her husband stayed back in Maryland a couple of extra weeks, planning to join them this weekend.
"I was like, 'okay, Oklahoma's my home now,'" Marisa said.
But any comfort they had disappeared Thursday morning when about 20 men, armed with guns, busted through the door.
"I don't know who they were," she said. "It was dark. All the lights were off."
Marisa said the men identified themselves as federal agents with the U.S. Marshals, ICE, and the FBI.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service denied having agents present during the raid, telling News 4 they were "aware of the operation before it happened," but did not assist in any capacity.
"I keep asking them, 'who are you? What are you doing here? What's happening,'" she said. "And they said, 'we have a warrant for the house, a search warrant.'"
She said they ordered her and her daughters outside into the rain before they could even put on clothes.
"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 said the names on the search warrant were not hers or anyone in her family.
She recognized them as names listed on mail still arriving at the house—likely former residents.
"We just moved here from Maryland," she said. "We're citizens. That's what I kept saying. We're citizens."
She said the agents didn't care.
"They were very dismissive, very rough, very careless," she said. "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 tore apart every square inch of the house and what few belongings they had, seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash 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."
Before they left, Marisa said one of the agents made a comment.
"One of them said, 'I know it was a little rough this morning,'" she said. "It was so denigrating. That you do all of this to a family, to women, your fellow citizens. And it was a little rough? You literally traumatized me and my daughters for life. We're going to have to go get help or get over this somehow."
Now, Marisa said they have, quite literally, nothing.
"I said, 'when are we going to get our stuff back?' They said it could be days or it could be months," she said.
Marisa said she is left with nothing but questions.
"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?"
Marisa told News 4 the agents wouldn't even leave her a business card.
She said she has no idea who to contact to get her things back.
Marissa told KFOR the U.S. Marshal's Service and the FBI were involved in this raid.
However, a representative for the U.S. Marshal's Service says their team was not involved.
News 4 reached out to the FBI. Last week, a spokesperson said they were assisting on this case and directed inquiries to Homeland Security.
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Police State tactics.
Something we avoided in the recent election.
This is going to get people killed.
I read about a similar case that happened just a couple of days ago.
Yes, these raids on citizens will increase until their bosses are held accountable. I'm afraid that won't happen until after the shooting starts.
I also know some of the Project 2025 people would use that as an excuse to impose martial law.
They would use any excuse they can make up to impose martial law.
that's why trumpski is pushing the boundaries so hard ...
I'm afraid that won't happen until after the shooting starts.
It is a very stupid game they are playing. Retaliation could come in the form of swatting right wing gun nuts with claims of human trafficking at their address.
the line has been drawn. all I'm waiting for is the first act of violence against americans on maga's part ...
Shameful
Gee, who will represent the pro-fascism side of this story here? Where are you guys?
The bots are gearing up.
maybe they're busy preparing crosses to be burned this weekend ...
Maybe the spam filters are blocking the new talking points.
The ones that spontaneously combust are the best.
I don't think they will. Because even they can't defend this
If it comes it will be in the form of you can’t expect everything to go perfectly smooth and you have to break some eggs to make an omelette. Ultimately all their blame will be placed at Biden’s feet.
Here's a little good news -
A little ray of sunshine at least
Don't these agencies have access to state property ownership records?
If I was the American family that was attacked in their rented home, I would sue the agencies for not contacting the owners of the property to verify who it was rented to before busting in.
Rentals change all the time, so running an operation based on unverified address information is incompetence.
I know no one is going to care because what I'm about to say isn't about Trump or his policies, but it is fact. This sort of crap has been going on for decades and it isn't specific to a particular party. As I said, this sort of thing has been happening for decades and involves everything from civil forfeiture laws, IRS, politics, intimidation, swatting and whatever else you can think of. There is nothing unique about what happened to these people.
Of course, someone's going to ask "So that makes it okay, then?" The answer is, of course not. The point is, why does this sort of thing happen so often? And if you don't think it does, I'd suggest some research. In my opinion, this happens because government at all levels believe, or have come to believe, rather, that that they are in power less to enforce laws in a responsible, intended manner and, instead, impose their personal visions on the society that elected them. They don't look at the laws and responsibilities they were elected to support as actual job descriptions. Instead, they see them as obstacles to achieving their personal visions.
Concerning the point I'm making, I don't care that this seed concerns the immigration debate, as it isn't relevant. This could have just as easily been about drugs and my point would still be valid. What I do think is relevant about it is how this could have happened in the first place and once it did, why did it progress the way it did? Most obvious, and assuming the seed is reasonably accurate in what happened, why did the authorities proceed the way they did once it was clear none of the people in the house were the people for whom they sought? More specifically, what legal authority did they think allowed them to proceed the way that they did in spite of the evidence? And please don't give me the "because Trump" BS, because unless you're a complete idiot, you must know this sort of thing has happened under both party's watches. Brian Malinowski, for instance; an event that seemed intended for unnecessary escalation even before the event took place.
To my mind, anyone who looks at what happened here as merely "because Trump" is a fool. This happens all the time, from the federal level to the local.