Updated April 22, 2025, 10:18 a.m. MTJose Hermosillo, a U.S. citizen, was detained for 10 days after falsely claiming to have entered the U.S. illegally.Hermosillo later asserted his citizenship, leading to the dismissal of the illegal entry charge against him.Questions remain about why Hermosillo made the initial false claim and how authorities handled the situation.He showed up at the vehicle gate of the Border Patrol station in Tucson and presumably tapped the buzzer. Then, for a reason seemingly known only to him, Jose Hermosillo, a U.S. citizen, told an agent he had entered the country illegally.After two days in custody, Hermosillo told a judge he was a U.S. citizen. But he was still ordered held for seven more days before his family showed up in court to provide proof of that.In total, Hermosillo was held for 10 days before his release April 17. On that day, prosecutors dropped the misdemeanor charge of illegal entry that was filed against him.The evidence for that charge, a document shows, came solely from Hermosillo’s own lips.The Department of Homeland Security on April 21 released the sworn statement Hermosillo gave to an immigration officer.The document contains what it states is a transcript of an April 9 conversation between Hermosillo and the DHS officer.In that conversation, Hermosillo said he was born in Mexico, was a citizen of Mexico and had no claim to being a United States citizen.He said he crossed into the United States alone by walking through the desert. He said he was doing so for work and planned to remain in the country for 20 years.He signed the statement with his first name, “Jose,” though written in spaced-out print letters.His girlfriend, Grace Hernandez, told Arizona Public Media in Tucson that Hermosillo had learning disabilities and was illiterate. The Republic was unable to reach the girlfriend.Hermosillo conducted his interview with the immigration officer in Spanish, the document says.Days later, when he told the judge he was a U.S. citizen, he said he spoke both Spanish and English and wished to have his case conducted in English.A spokesperson for the U.S. Border Patrol, John Mennell said he would not speculate on why Hermosillo made that claim to an agent. “We aren’t in a position to say why somebody would do what they did,” he said.Mennell said that the agent took Hermosillo at his word. “They’re going to believe him,” he said, “until he changes his story.”But by the time Hermosillo asserted his citizenship, Mennell said, it was in the hands of the prosecutor and judge.“There is no indication that he told agents he was a U.S. citizen until his hearing,” Mennell said.The criminal complaint against Hermosillo also contained an error of fact. It said Hermosillo was found by Border Patrol agents in Nogales, rather than in Tucson. Mennell said that was unintentional.The minutes for the April 10 hearing indicate Hermosillo claimed to be a U.S. citizen. The entry in the court docket does not say whether Hermosillo made that claim himself, or through his attorney.At that same hearing, prosecutors asked to delay the hearing. And, the minutes show, asked that Hermosillo be detained until then.Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said her office was asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more details on the matter. “It is wholly unacceptable to wrongly detain U.S. citizens,” said Mayes, a Democrat.The Arizona Republic could not reach Hermosillo, nor his family. The attorney who handled the case did not return a request for comment.The aunt of his girlfriend told Arizona Public Media that Hermosillo was from Albuquerque and was visiting Tucson for the first time. She said he got lost and found himself at the Border Patrol station.Proving citizenship with documents can be difficultA longtime immigration attorney, Robert McWhirter, author of “The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Immigration Law,” said ICE has no jurisdiction over U.S. citizens. It is incumbent on the agency to get a U.S. citizen out of its custody as soon as possible.He said proving someone's citizenship, absent documents like a passport or birth certificate, can be difficult.Immigration officials, he said, usually interview someone without advising them of their right to remain silent since the cases usually begin as a civil proceeding, not a criminal case.McWhirter said the sheer pace of immigration cases moving through the system leave it prone to errors.McWhirter, who is not involved in the case, said the man perhaps was genuinely confused about his immigration status. And that a Border Patrol agent might not have questioned why this person was turning himself in.“In the zeal to try to deport as many people as possible, it could be the agent did bad police work,” he said.Before President Donald Trump began his second term, a case like this, with no sign of immigration history, gone through civil immigration court, rather than criminal court, McWhirter said.“The Trump regime is trying to artificially increase their numbers to make it look like they’re tough on immigration,” he said, “when in reality it underscores their incompetency.”McWhirter said that as a White man, he likely would not have likely faced the same treatment had he knocked on the Border Patrol office and claimed to be in the country illegally. Maybe near the Canadian border, but not in Tucson, he said.“Why is it that my blond hair and blue eyes give me immunity from that government interaction?” he said. “I think it is safe to say that this wouldn’t have happened to me at the Mexican border.”