A Redditor Reveals Their Brother Was Mistakenly Taken to an Ice Detention Center

The current state of U.S. society has caused many immigrants who were born in or came to the country looking for more opportunities to be on guard. Unfortunately, their feelings are valid, as Homeland Security shared in March 2025 that in the first 50 days of the Trump Administration, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) has made 32,809 enforcement arrests, almost the exact amount as the agency's 33,242 arrests in the entire year of 2024 under the Biden Administration.

Among the ongoing arrests, a Reddit user shared how the recent state of the world directly affected their family. They shared their experience on the message board app how they learned their brother was detained by ICE despite having no cause for arrest.

Here's what to know.

In March 2025, Reddit user @Just-Box4436 discussed the horrifying way she discovered her brother had been detained by ICE. While the user didn't share where they were from, they said their brother was attending university in the U.S. The Redditor made the discovery when they called their brother for EID, a Muslim holiday that ran from March 29 to 30, 2025.

The user said they suspected something was off when their brother didn't answer the call nor their family's WhatsApp messages, which wasn't something he typically did. They also shared that they didn't know what to do because they weren't in the same country nor was their mother in a space to handle the situation rationally.

"We're panicking and don't know what to do," the Redditor said on March 31. "What can we do; he did express that students in his uni have been arrested in the past month, that's why we believe that's what happened. Please, what can we do we live at the end of the world and he is alone and never been put in a situation like this. My mom has been crying non stop and she's a diabetic; I am afraid something bad will happen to her."

The day after their viral post, the Redditor returned to the thread with an update. They shared that after their family spent 24 hours in a state of "pure terror and hopelessness," before they finally got in touch with their home country's embassy in Washington, D.C. The officials told the Redditor and their family that their brother was "apparently mistakenly detained by ICE along with other students and he was sent to a detention center."

It's unclear where the Redditor's brother and his classmates were sent to, but several Reddit commenters believed it was in Louisiana, which, as WWNO.org reports, had become a major hub for immigration detention. However, they shared that they appointed two embassy lawyers for him through the consulate in Houston and that the attorneys were preparing to meet with the brother and would be in contact with them. The Redditor then ended the post by thanking fellow commenters for their support.

"I also want to thank everyone who messaged me on private messages," they said. "I received over 50 messages, and I was unable to reply to all of them we were overwhelmed with support, and the gesture and kindness definitely reached and touched me and my family's heart so again thank you. This American era really reminds me of the post-9/11 Muslim-Americans witch hunt and detention I hope everyone there will be safe."