Oregon Public Broadcasting | By Holly Bartholomew | October 22, 2025
A pair of congressional investigative committees will look into the October arrest of a Milwaukie resident by immigration officials as part of a wide-ranging investigation of immigration arrests of more than 170 U.S. citizens.
Francisco Miranda, a U.S. citizen born in California, was allegedly arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials outside his work in North Portland Oct. 2.
In a screenshot of a video provided by attorney Michael Fuller, an immigration officer can be seen speaking to Francisco Miranda in Portland, Ore., on Oct. 2, 2025.
After threatening him with a dog and holding him at the Portland ICE facility for several hours, ICE officials drove Miranda back to his work with no explanation for his detainment.
On Monday, a representative from California and a Connecticut senator announced the joint congressional investigation of arrests of U.S. citizens by immigration officials since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
In a statement, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, said, “President Trump has embraced the use of federal immigration agents to terrorize communities nationwide whose politics he disfavors, a campaign that has increasingly ensnared U.S. citizens.”
Garcia is a ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Blumenthal is a ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Their announcement of the “bicameral inquiry” came after an investigation by ProPublica found more than 170 American citizens have been detained by immigration officials this year.
Michael Fuller, a Portland attorney representing Miranda, said he spoke with Blumenthal about Miranda’s arrest on Monday.
Fuller said he hopes the inquiry reveals what sort of probable cause existed for Miranda’s “false arrest.”
The attorney said he has asked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to explain probable cause for Miranda’s arrest, but the agency has not responded. As previously reported, Fuller sent a tort claim to DHS and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Oct. 6.
The tort demanded DHS produce documents that showed probable cause by Oct. 13.
When ICE agents confronted Miranda in the parking lot outside his work around 6 a.m. Oct. 2, he immediately told them he was an American citizen and tried to show them his driver’s license, according to Fuller.
The federal agents then showed Miranda a photo of himself working on a fishing boat more than 10 years ago and asked, “Is this you?”
Miranda responded that it was him and restated that he was a citizen. The officers then said he was here on an “overstay,” suggesting he stayed in the U.S. beyond the time authorized by a visa.
In a video of the arrest, which Miranda filmed and his attorney shared with OPB, Miranda is heard saying, “What do you mean overstay? I don’t know what that is.”
Speaking with OPB on Wednesday, Fuller said, “I just hope to find out exactly – where did they get this information and why did they find it reliable enough to dispatch seven armed agents to come arrest and detain our client?”
Fuller said the only sort of explanation they’ve received for Miranda’s arrest came when ICE agents were driving him back to his work and told him sometimes the parents of people born outside the U.S. lie to their children about where they were born.
Miranda had a federally-approved Real ID, his attorney said, which is only available to citizens and legal residents.
In their own letter to Noem sent Monday, Blumenthal and Garcia also asked for documentation explaining the arrests of Miranda and other detained citizens.
The letter notes how the impacts of Trump’s escalation in immigration enforcement disproportionately impact certain communities, including the Portland area, and states the arrests coincide with “an alarming increase in racial profiling.”
After Miranda’s arrest, U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum, the Democrat whose district includes Milwaukie, also called for an investigation into Miranda’s arrest.
“These ICE raids are reminiscent of the Fugitive Slave Act, when the U.S. Marshalls would hunt down and kidnap Black Americans,” Bynum said in a press release about the incident.
Garcia and Blumenthal demanded DHS hand over records about the arrests of American citizens by Nov. 3.
