A Haitian man was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents around 9:00 a.m. Sunday at a supermarket on Avenida Borinquen in Barrio Obrero, San Juan, shortly after he finished shopping with several grocery bags.
Social media videos showed roughly ten federal agents pinning him to the pavement. Community leader Jonathan Hernández, who supports immigrant families, and interpreter Leonard Prophil described the arrest as aggressive, saying the man was treated "as if he were a criminal." After the detention, people close to the man went to ICE's processing center in Guaynabo to deliver his passport and asylum-related documents. Hernández said agents accepted the passport but refused the asylum paperwork.
According to Hernández, the man has had a political asylum application pending since August 12, 2025, a process requiring documentation of persecution, threats, kidnappings, or killings of family members presented before a judge. Prophil said he is trying to locate the detained man's lawyer and fears deportation before authorities assess the danger he would face returning to Haiti, adding, "Haitians don't leave their country for fun." He also referenced the case of four women deported from Puerto Rico who he claimed were beheaded at the Haiti–Dominican Republic border.