ICE has detained hundreds in Pennsylvania in 'collateral' arrests, most of whom have no criminal record

When immigration agents stopped Luis Mayancela's car outside a Lowe's hardware store in Monroeville on a frigid January morning, two men bolted from the vehicle.

One escaped the officers after he ran across Route 22 and leapt down an embankment. Another was taken into custody. A third person in the vehicle, 22-year-old Mayancela, stayed behind - thinking he was safe from arrest after spending years and tens of thousands of dollars to ensure he was in the country legally.

Instead, Mayancela - who had become a new father just three months prior - was taken into custody and held in immigration detention for months before being released on bond May 8.

ICE data analyzed by the Post-Gazette shows he had never been the intended target of the immigration enforcement operation. Instead, he was labelled a "collateral" arrest - one of more than 1,700 made across the state between Aug. 6, 2025, and March 10, 2026, according to ICE records obtained and published by the Deportation Data Project.

Collateral arrests made up about a third of immigration detentions across the state during that time period, compared to about 22% of ICE arrests across the country.

Among those who were specifically targeted by ICE agents, about 55% had a conviction or pending charge when they were detained, according to the agency's records.

But for immigrants swept up in collateral arrests, the data shows that three out of four had never been charged or convicted of a crime - including Mayancela.

"I just never thought I would go through a situation like this," he said.

Mayancela, who came to the United States when he was 17, had been protected from deportation after obtaining Special Immigrant Juvenile Status, a designation that required a court to determine that he couldn't reunite with his parents and that it was not in his best interest to return to Ecuador.

The arrest was a surprise not just to him, but to his friend Ian James, who works with Mayancela in the roofing business.

James, a registered independent, said he voted for Trump in the last election and had supported the president's promise to deport the "worst of the worst" - but his friend's ordeal has turned him against the federal deportation campaign.

"I 110% regret my vote," he said. "I didn't foresee this happening. I thought they'd crack down more on drug dealers and criminals in the cartel, but all of a sudden they're going after guys in roofing vans."

Discontent grows

James is among a growing number of people who oppose the way the Trump administration has carried out its immigration crackdown, recent surveys show.

A nationwide New York Times/ Siena Poll in May found just 30% of people strongly support the way the president has handled the immigration issue, compared to 47% who strongly disapprove.

That disapproval jumped almost 10 percentage points from a year earlier, after the country saw sweeping protests against the immigration roundups that included the killing of two U.S. citizens - Renee Good and Alex Pretti - by federal agents in Minneapolis.

For James, the shift in opinion wasn't just driven by the fact that his friend had no criminal record when he was arrested. James said he also believed Mayancela had been following the proper legal steps to remain in the U.S.

"So many people came to this country when President Biden was in office," James said. "Luis was one of the few people who spent $30,000-plus to get into the program that would protect him and lead him to legal residency here."

But the program that had granted Mayancela legal residency was upended last June, when the Trump administration abruptly terminated its protections. At the time, immigration officials said it was rife with fraud and was allowing dangerous people to enter the country.

In a July report, the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services said the program posed "national security threats," and said that 853 people who had been granted protections were known or suspected gang members - a number that amounted to less than 0.3% of the 300,000 people who had petitioned for Special Immigrant Juvenile status.

Mayancela was unaware of the policy change when he was arrested. He didn't learn about it - or that his protections had been formally stripped by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - until March, while he was still being held in detention in the Moshannon Valley Processing Center.

While he was being detained, James helped secure a lawyer for his friend and spoke to him regularly through video chats while he was held in Moshannon - near Philipsburg, Centre County, the largest ICE detention center in the northeast - to keep his spirits up.

"This is someone who wants to follow the legal pathways to be here and look at what has happened to him," James said. "It's horrific how this affects the people that truly did everything in their power to follow the rules."

The ICE practice of making collateral arrests is drawing scrutiny from criminal justice experts, who say it could lead to widespread civil rights violations, including racial profiling.

"It's going to be very tempting - when you see any person with brown skin, has an accent, maybe dressed in a working man's outfit - to roll up on them and see what you got," said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied policing for decades.

In a statement, a DHS spokesperson said the agency is not making arrests based on ethnicity.

"What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. - NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity," the agency wrote. "There are no ‘indiscriminate' stops being made."

As more people experience the effects of the immigration crackdown - for themselves or people they know - public support could erode further, Harris said.

"It's not just what you do, it matters how you do it," Harris said. "This is what they promised, and they're doing it. It's just a lot uglier to see" than some people had expected.

James said he could still support widespread arrests and deportations - if they were targeted at people who posed a danger to the public.

"If they were posting on the news every day that they arrested 100,000 legitimate criminals and they could prove that to me, I would be satisfied with their work," James said. "But that's clearly not what is happening. … It just seems to be out of control."

Lost protections

For months, as James worked to secure a lawyer for Mayancela, he reached out to the media and lawmakers to bring attention to the case.

Late last month, he got in touch with aides to U.S. Rep Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, who wrote a letter to the Department of Homeland Security on May 7 questioning why Mayancela had been arrested.

Deluzio's letter came one day after a judge granted Mayancela a $15,000 bond.

The next day, after the federal government opted not to appeal the ruling, Mayancela was released.

James picked him up at Moshannon, where he had been held for more than three months.

Before the pair headed back to Pittsburgh, they stopped to take a photo - both smiling - at the sign marking the entrance to the facility.

"He's helped me so much," Mayancela said. "I think that without [James], I would not have been released from there and they would have deported me."

Now, both men are waiting to see if Mayancela's release was just a temporary reprieve or a pathway to staying in the country legally.

Mayencela said he was told late last month that he has fewer than 50 days left to wait for a permanent visa.

He's also fighting a deportation order issued after his arrest, though his next court date has not been set.

Mayancela said he knows deportation could be in his future, although he hopes that even if he is sent back to Ecuador, his visa might still be granted.

"Maybe there will be an opportunity to return," he said.

James said he hopes it doesn't come to that.

"It's a gamble," James said. "If his visa comes up before the deportation hearing, great, we'll walk into the deportation hearing with a visa. If the deportation hearing comes first, we're going to have to hope our attorney can work some magic - or that some sort of act of God happens."

Post-Gazette data reporter Jimmy Cloutier contributed to this report.

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 6:51 PM.