The U.S. government detained a U.S. citizen for 10 days on claims he was an undocumented immigrant, and then lied in their official account.

Jose Hermosillo is a 19-year-old New Mexico resident who visited his girlfriend’s family in Tucson, Arizona, earlier this month. After suffering from a seizure, he was transported to a hospital by ambulance and did not have his state ID. After being released from the Tucson hospital, Hermosillo did not know how to get back to where he was staying, he told the Popular Information newsletter. He sought out a police officer for help.

That officer happened to work for Border Patrol, and asked Hermosillo where he was from and if he had papers. Hermosillo said, “New Mexico,” to which the officer replied, “Don’t make me [out] like [I’m] stupid. I know you’re from Mexico.” Hermosillo was then arrested.

But the Department of Homeland Security’s account says something completely different. According to the DHS X account, “Hermosillo’s arrest and detention were a direct result of his own actions and statements.”

“Jose Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson Arizona stating he had ILLEGALLY entered the U.S. and identified himself as a Mexican citizen,” the account stated Monday. The DHS also released a supposed transcript of Hermosillo’s conversation with a Border Patrol agent, signed “JOSE,” in which Hermosillo said he was born in Mexico and illegally entered the U.S.

According to Hermosillo’s girlfriend, he has learning disabilities and is only able to write his own name. He told Popular Information that he did not graduate from high school, only finishing the tenth grade. According to the DHS report, Hermosillo “read” their document or had it read to him, but he says that never happened. On top of that, the documents contain inaccurate information, claiming that Hermosillo was detained “at or near Nogales, Arizona,” which is more than 70 miles away from Tucson.

Hermosillo was then held in a cell with 15 other men at Florence Correctional Center, a privately run immigration detention facility, for 10 days before being released on April 17. Two days into his detention, he told a judge that he was a U.S. citizen, but prosecutors then asked that his hearing be rescheduled, with Hermosillo remaining in detention until then. Seven days later, at the next hearing, his family provided the immigration court with his birth certificate.

While in detention, Hermosillo contracted the flu but was not provided with any medicine after he requested it. His pleas to prison staff that he was a U.S. citizen were met with replies of, “Call your lawyer.”

Ultimately, while Hermosillo managed to secure his release, his account is a horror story of how quickly someone can be detained on the suspicion of being an undocumented immigrant, and how the government will even lie to keep someone in detention. The Trump administration is staunchly resisting any kind of legal safeguard to protect the rights of immigrants or those mistakenly detained, blatantly denying people the right of due process.

Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon is in shambles after an explosive power struggle saw the secretary of defense’s top civilian advisers dismissed, Politico reported Wednesday.

Donald Trump’s laughably unqualified pick to lead the Department of Defense may have thought he was bringing in advisers to help supplement his blatant lack of experience—but the situation at the Pentagon quickly detonated into a bitter battle of personalities as his top aides competed for influence.

At the center is Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s departing chief of staff who reportedly counseled the secretary to fire three of his other top advisers last week over leak concerns, according to Politico, which spoke with nine current and former DOD officials.

Hegseth’s senior adviser Dan Caldwell, chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary Colin Carroll, and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick were all put on the chopping block—and apparently, it was because Kasper had it out for them when they were brought in to help supplement his unprofessional leadership.

“When Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick took on many of his responsibilities at Hegseth’s direction, a rift deepened between Joe and them,” one source told Politico. “After several weeks, Joe began trying to move them out apparently by bad-mouthing them to the secretary.”

“Kasper did not like that those guys had the secretary’s ear,” another person familiar with the dynamic told Politico. “He did not like that they had walk-in and hanging-out privileges in the office. He wanted them out. It was a knife fight.”

For his part, Kasper has claimed that his scrutiny of the advisers was the result of his direction to investigate a spate of leaks about Hegseth’s allegedly sharing classified material in unsecured group chats. Hegseth suspected the leaks were a result of the severe infighting, someone close to him told Politico.

In an interview with Tucker Carlson Monday, Caldwell claimed that individuals with “personal vendettas” against Hegseth’s three ousted advisers had “weaponized” the investigation against them.

“There’s just a lot of tension, there’s a lot of bad blood,” said one person with knowledge of the matter. “And there’s a lot of people trying to assert dominance in an area where it’s very hard to do without cutting somebody else.”

“There is a complete meltdown in the building, and this is really reflecting on the secretary’s leadership,” another person familiar with the feud told Politico. “Pete Hegseth has surrounded himself with some people who don’t have his interests at heart.”

Last week, Politico reported that Kasper would be stepping away from his role for a new position at the agency.

Hegseth himself may not be long for the DOD, with one anonymous source saying that the secretary may “implode on his own,” while another suggested that Trump could get tired of the distractions from the former Fox News host’s tenure at the Pentagon. But on Sunday, the president criticized Hegseth’s detractors.

Elon Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, has been targeting people who are mean to him on X, according to

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