‘We’re citizens!’: Oklahoma City family traumatized after ICE raids home, but they weren’t suspects

https://kfor.com/news/local/were-citizens-oklahoma-city-family-traumatized-after-ice-raids-home-but-they-werent-suspects/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ_QL1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFHRjV0Y2EwTnI4R2pqMVI2AR4zcnV54IV6xDFtZ-JOWbTSuWUuEbqjxQ6L9UtKOYQqJcYHbnAMbUUbj-GG_A_aem_BSYWD8eZJzFS9TH_rbpK5g


ICE is a thug unit run by a major thug.   This family was badly mistreated, in some ways brutalized.   I read earlier where the mother said the 20 ICE agents who broke into their home with no warring then wanted the women, one adult and the others teenagers to remove their clothing in front of them to get dressed before being forced outside in the rain.   The report said the mother refused saying even her husband had not seen the children nude and she did not want them to do that in front of these men.  They were ordered in their “underwear” outside in the rain where they were kept for hours.   Is this the government / police any way people should be treated by law enforcement in the US.  They so disrespected this family sure in the fact they were correct with no room for any doubt.  They had no empathy, no common sense.  In the time I was an axillary sheriff’s deputy we were trained never to act like that.  We were taught to respect the rights of people but be aware they might be lying and the danger of the situation.   Respect the rights of the people.  All people on US soil, in the country regardless of status have due process rights.   The right wing haters want to tell you that if you are here illegally you have no rights but SCOTUS has repeatedly said every person here does.  Hugs  

As for Marissa’s phones, electronics, and cash, they have no idea which agency has those belongings or how to get those items back.  


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Updated: 

Update: 4.30.25

At this time, there is not a fundraising campaign set up for the family. KFOR will share any details if that happens.

Original:

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.

A spokesperson for Homeland Security told News 4 they are looking into it and will get back to us, but we have not heard from them.

As for Marissa’s phones, electronics, and cash, they have no idea which agency has those belongings or how to get those items back.