ICE operations intensify across San Juan as border czar Tom Homan visits Puerto Rico

United States immigration agents carried out operations in several San Juan neighborhoods from October 22 to 25, 2026. The raids drew protests from residents and condemnation from civil liberties advocates. During the same week, White House Border Czar Tom Homan visited Puerto Rico to meet with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials “amid reports of intensifying immigration raids,” The Washington Post reported, citing a summary of his trip posted on social media.

The operations began around 4:30 am on October 22, when about 24 vehicles gathered on Calle del Parque in Santurce, according to Jonathan Hernández, a community leader in Barrio Obrero. From there, he told El Nuevo Día, agents went to Barrio Obrero, Villa Palmeras, Avenida Eduardo Conde, Puerto Nuevo, and other areas. He estimated that about 15 people were arrested; ICE did not give the newspaper details on arrests. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) said it was supporting an operation led by ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Miami, WAPA reported.

On October 25, several ICE vehicles stopped traffic at Plaza Barceló in Barrio Obrero, in Santurce, and agents arrested a man outside a restaurant, El Nuevo Día reported. A witness said he was pushed into a van. Barrio Obrero is home to a large share of Puerto Rico’s Dominican community. “I need them to stop taking hardworking Dominicans; we are not criminals,” resident Oneida de los Santos López told the newspaper.

In nearby Villa Palmeras, agents stopped at a business behind the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón and left after residents protested. Videos shared by Noticias Telemundo show masked officers while residents shout at them to leave. In the videos, members of the Dominican community describe fear even among people with legal documents.

Activists say agents threatened them

On October 24, two members of the Colectiva Feminista en Construcción went to Calle Arzuaga in Río Piedras to document an immigration operation that had just ended. There, an agent aimed a pepper spray canister at the face of cofounder and spokesperson Shariana Ferrer Núñez, El Nuevo Día reported.

A video posted by the group shows the agent telling her in English to move off the road. He then points the canister at her face and says, “Step away. You’re not going to like this. Step away.” The video shows no physical contact. Ferrer Núñez said another agent aimed a taser at her companion’s face and that agents knocked the activists’ electric scooters to the ground. “It’s terrible; you can’t live like this,” she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Puerto Rico (ACLU) said agents across San Juan acted “in a threatening manner and with long guns”, according to executive director Annette Martínez Orabona. She said residents have a First Amendment right to record and protest immigration operations. ICE did not respond to El Nuevo Día’s requests for comment.

A campaign now in its second year

Puerto Ricans are US citizens by birth, but Puerto Rico falls under federal immigration law, and ICE’s operations target noncitizen residents. The current enforcement campaign began on January 26, 2025, when 47 people were arrested in San Juan, Pasquines reported at the time. By July 2025, ICE said it had detained 445 people in Puerto Rico, about 72% of them Dominican citizens. Rebecca González-Ramos, ICE’s top investigator on the islands, estimated that as many as 20,000 undocumented immigrants live there.

The ACLU has blamed Governor Jenniffer González-Colón (PNP, R) and Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) Secretary Edwin González Montalvo for the latest operations. It says DTOP gave federal agents the data of 6,321 immigrants who received driver’s licenses under Law 97 of 2013, which lets undocumented residents drive legally. According to documents the ACLU obtained after a lawsuit, HSI made an administrative request on January 26, 2025. DTOP delivered names, addresses, passport numbers, and other information three days later, without a court order.

González-Colón defended the handover. “There is a federal subpoena, and Puerto Rico government agencies have to comply with federal mandates,” she said.

HSI’s San Juan office has also arrested eight people, or four couples, for marriage fraud over the past two months. Marriage fraud is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.

Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress responds

Resident Commissioner Pablo José Hernández (PPD, D), who sits on the US House Committee on Homeland Security, issued a statement on October 26. “Immigration laws can and must be enforced without violence, with compassion and respect for human rights,” he said.

Hernández said he has demanded explanations from federal authorities about ICE operations in Puerto Rico since January 2025. He has cosponsored bills that would require immigration agents to wear body cameras and to identify themselves during operations. In June 2026, he opposed a Republican budget that added $70 billion for ICE and US Customs and Border Protection. He urged immigrants to learn their rights.