U.S. Border Patrol arrested and imprisoned a U.S. citizen with learning disabilities in Arizona for over a week earlier this month after he approached an immigration officer asking for help after a medical episode, he has said, contradicting the government’s account of the encounter.

As Popular Information has reported, 19-year-old Jose Hermosillo was arrested on April 8 in Tucson. Hermosillo said in an interview that he had been in town that day to visit his girlfriend’s family when he suffered from a seizure, and took an ambulance to the hospital. He did not bring his ID with him because it was an emergency.

Upon his release, Hermosillo approached a Border Patrol officer, believing that the officer could help him get back to the place he was staying. Instead, the officer accused him of being in the U.S. illegally and arrested him, despite Hermosillo saying that he was a U.S. citizen.

“You’re not from here. Do you have your papers?” Hermosillo recalled the officer saying. Hermosillo said that the officer accused him of lying about being from New Mexico, saying, “Don’t make me [out] like [I’m] stupid. I know you’re from Mexico.”

The officer ordered Hermosillo, who cannot read and can only write his name, to sign a supposed transcript of the encounter. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later posted a copy of this document on X, claiming that Jose said he is a citizen of Mexico and had........

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