Houston man mistakenly detained by ICE due to name confusion

HOUSTON - A Houston man was mistakenly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and released hours later. The agency admits they arrested the wrong person due to similarities in appearance and identical names.

ICE arrests wrong man

What they're saying:

Miguel Angel Ponce, the man detained, described the experience as traumatizing and urged ICE Houston to improve their procedures. 

"It was a weird experience, for sure. At first, I thought it was a joke. Then it got real when they told me I had a prior encounter with ICE and an order for deportation," Ponce said.

During the interaction, Ponce attempted to prove his citizenship by presenting his Texas ID. 

"Before I could put my wallet back in the dash, he was yelling at me to get out of the car. For what? That’s when it all went downhill," he recounted.

Ponce expressed feeling wronged during the encounter. 

"Very violated. It was a weird feeling being pulled out of my car. I didn’t even know why. They didn’t tell me what they pulled me over for, nothing," he said.

"They need to do better and go after the guys that are really tearing up the city. Most of us are just going to work. I was born here, so I don't know why I was even targeted," Ponce said. "They kept saying all I had was an order of deportation and a prior encounter with ICE. They never mentioned what this guy was being looked for or whatever. So when they put that out after I came to the news, I was like, that's crazy." he added.

ICE Houston responds

The other side:

FOX 26 reached out to ICE Houston for a statement on this incident.

"On July 23, deportation officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were targeting a violent criminal alien for arrest in Houston, Texas, who has been convicted of multiple child sex offenses and is an immediate threat to public safety. An individual with the same first, middle, and last name who bears a striking resemblance to the target was temporarily taken into custody by mistake. During the encounter, the individual brought it to the officers’ attention that he was not who they were looking for. To ensure they were not releasing a dangerous criminal alien convicted of multiple child sex offenses and several other violent criminal offenses back into the community, they took him to a safe alternate location to verify his identity. Immediately upon confirming that he was not the target, they took him back to his residence and apologized for the confusion."

FOX 26 requested information on the correct Miguel Angel Ponce from ICE Houston.

"The statement is all we are releasing on this," a spokesperson with ICE Houston responded via email. 

Dig deeper:

FOX 26 spoke with Ross Miller, an immigration attorney at Gonzalez Olivieri LLC, who is not representing this client, and he said this is something that is occurring more frequently throughout the United States.

"You have to have probable cause to initiate any type of enforcement action, any type of detention against somebody, whether they're lawfully present or not in the United States," Miller said. "So if you are unlawfully detained, as you know, it sounds like Mr. Ponce, he was a US citizen. He's not subject to immigration enforcement, obviously. Then, depending on the situation, and you know exactly what happened with his detention, he may have remedies available in federal court. He can file a federal lawsuit against the government for unlawful detention or even for negligence," Miller added.