Federal immigration agents raided an Oklahoma family's home and seized their belongings ‒ even though they are American citizens and weren't either suspects or the subject of the search warrant. The intended suspects had apparently moved out two weeks earlier.
Federal officials have stood by the April 24 incident, which comes as immigration raids have ramped up across the United States, sparking renewed debate over enforcement and community safety.
KFOR-TV in Oklahoma City reported a woman and her three daughters said they were treated like "criminals" when roughly 20 armed federal agents raided their rental home in northwest Oklahoma City. The woman, who was not named, told KFOR the agents tore apart every inch of the house, seizing their phones, laptops and their life savings in cash as "evidence."
While the agents carried out the search warrant, the woman said the names listed on the document were not hers or her family's, but likely those of former tenants whose mail was still arriving at the address. She and her daughters had moved from Maryland to Oklahoma about two weeks earlier.
The woman told KFOR that the men identified themselves as agents from the U.S. Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the FBI. She said the agents would not leave a business card, and she does not know whom to contact in order to retrieve her family's possessions, according to KFOR.
A U.S. Marshals spokesperson told The Oklahoman, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the agency wasn't involved in the incident. An FBI spokesperson wasn't sure of the lead agency in the raid.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the previous residents of the home were the intended targets for a court-authorized search warrant for a "large-scale human smuggling investigation." In addition to standing by the raid, officials blamed on the court where agents obtained a search warrant.
"It was ultimately a successful operation," Tricia McLaughlin, DHS' assistant secretary for public affairs, told NPR on May 1. "Unfortunately, the warrant that the court did give was for a house that the targets had moved out two weeks prior, so that was not an ideal situation obviously."
McLaughlin said officials would conduct internal investigations to ensure similar actions don't occur.
The investigation resulted in eight Guatemalan nationals indicted for their roles in smuggling people into the country, DHS' statement said. Two of the people had criminal convictions for narcotics possession, identity fraud, money laundering and re-entry after deportation.