In 2025, immigration agents handcuffed a 15-year-old U.S. citizen with disabilities outside a school in Los Angeles, saying they had mistaken the teen for an alleged gang member. The Department of Homeland Security has stated that ICE does not restrain or zip-tie children, but this incident is among dozens documented cases of American children being detained, some of them handcuffed, during immigration enforcement operations. The case is cited as part of a broader pattern of more than 500 U.S. citizens who have been arrested or detained by ICE.