Masked Men Dragging Families Into Hell

This is not a third-world country; this is the United States of America

Mothers clutching children, trembling behind doors. Workers are too afraid to show up for shifts. Entire communities are paralyzed by fear of armed men who look like terrorists or kidnappers, in the world of an authoritarian President Trump.

Reports surfaced in Los Angeles of masked agents in plain clothes, barreling through neighborhoods in unmarked vehicles, weaving through vendors and shoppers, seizing people at gunpoint without identifying themselves. One mother remembers how they pinned down her car, pepper-sprayed her toddler, then whisked her husband away in front of her younger children.

In a disturbing incident that drew national attention last week in June 2025, an undocumented landscaper, father of three Marines, with no criminal record, was chased, violently beaten, and detained by masked men (later identified as federal agents) outside an IHOP in Riverside, California. One of his sons said he was able to visit his father, who was still in the same blood-stained clothing, and still had the effects of the pepper spray agents used on him. He had not received any medical attention for his dislocated shoulder, and the pepper spray had received a little water once a day and was given little food. He said his father is being held in a “cage” with about 70 other men.

These weren’t brazen cartel hits; they were federal agents. But how do you tell? No badges, no agency insignia, mask covering every face. Their cars have no markings, their guns rattle like threats, and no explanations are given.

• In Manassas, Virginia on March 5, 2025, Jensy Machado, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was stopped while driving to work. Despite showing a REAL ID, agents had guns drawn, forced him to keep his hands up, cuffed him, and only released him after reviewing his identification. Jensy now questions his vote for President Trump.
  • In Chicago, Julio Noriega, a 54-year-old U.S. citizen with a learning disability, was grabbed while handing out resumes on January 31, detained for ten hours without food, water, or bathroom access, then released into the night with no documentation or transport assistance.

  

• On Monday, June 23, 2025, a distressing video captured by a bystander outside a West Los Angeles Home Depot shows ICE agents—some masked, tactical-clad—chasing down a Latina street vendor identified as Celina Ramirez. She had been selling tacos on the sidewalk when a swarm of agents—no badges shown—descended. As she ran across the parking lot, terrified, she eventually collapsed into a tree, clinging to its trunk for dear life. Witnesses surrounded the scene; one described women in the crowd screaming: “That looked like an abduction.” The agents forcibly removed Ramirez and, according to onlookers, did not provide any paperwork, agency identification, or explanation. Residents and workers affirm the fear: she was targeted simply for being Latina. Multiple arrests were made in the aftermath, including some bystanders, none of whose citizenship status has been confirmed.

• Pregnant women and children swept up:
  On June 8, 2025, 9 months pregnant U.S. citizen Cary López Alvarado was arrested amid a raid in Los Angeles while trying to protect her undocumented partner. She pleaded, “I’m pregnant, shield my stomach,” but agents detained her anyway and only released her later.

• Targeting from an unmarked car:
  In Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25, six masked plainclothes DHS agents grabbed a Turkish Phd Tufts student, Rümeysa Öztürk, near her home and drove her off in an unmarked car. She was shuttled across multiple states. She hadn’t been warned, identified, or allowed to speak.

Terror Impersonators

These tactics are frighteningly similar to those used by criminals impersonating ICE: masked, unmarked, armed. Custodian impersonators across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida have used counterfeit Homeland Security documents and guns to lure victims into traps. One convicted impostor, Fernando Diaz, in California, was found with loaded weapons and official-looking documents. Experts fear that the real agents and the fakes bleed together, making every raid feel like a possible kidnapping or assault.

What This Means for Communities

The result? Fear, fear, fear. Fear of going to work, fear of bringing children to school, fear of stepping outside.

Ben Cable reporting from Broadacres, Las Vegas, Nevada

Broadacres, a popular social hub and Latino-run market in North Las Vegas, Nevada, with over 1,100 vendors, shut down on June 21st. It was a swap meet and crowded entertainment venue with food vendors and live music, but now lies empty, a ghost town. ‘Isabella’, a young Latina who has been going to Broadacres for years told Citizen Ben, “Now families are afraid to go out to church or going to Broadacres for fear of being detained by heartless, ICE agents or bounty hunters”. This fear has spread across America.

These people, OUR people, no matter their status, are working legitimate jobs that serve OUR communities. They have families to feed, homes, utilities, and medications to pay for. This will force people into hunger, homelessness, and WILL then become a burden on all of us.

In Connecticut, advocates report agents in masks pulling people from courthouses and streets, often without warrants and with no notice to local officials. Immigrants stop attending court appointments out of sheer dread.

It Could Be Kidnappers, Not Agents

What if these weren’t punishment raids, but criminals scaring you into silence? Many convicted crypto kidnappers and rapists dress the same: black masks, tactical gear, plain‑clothes, guns, unmarked cars. They pose as law enforcement to enter homes or pull over cars. They detain, torture, and demand ransom. If someone comes at you in camouflage and doesn’t show a badge, how do you know who’s real?

Now imagine that scenario targeting families, kids, and elders—assuming they’re undocumented. With no transparency, no identification—how are communities supposed to respond?

Haunting Questions

• Why do federal agents operate masked and unidentifiable when even criminals exploit that mode?

• Why does ICE refuse to clarify who they are and where they operate publicly?

• Why aren’t pregnant women, children, and U.S. citizens given special protections, or at least shown a warrant before arrests?

• Why are local law enforcement and officials often kept completely in the dark?

To You

If they don’t knock, don’t flash a badge, don’t show an ID—consider it an attack. Skip answering the door. Hide your documents away. Call for legal help. Record everything. This is no longer paperwork and paperwork alone; these raids feel like terror tactics. These masked men could be ICE agents, or they could be something far more sinister: criminals masquerading as law enforcement.

This is not paranoia. This is what has unfolded across the U.S. since February 2025. These tactics terrify communities, tear families apart, and blur the line between federal enforcement and outright kidnapping.

Just imagine if Italian Americans, Irish, or your ancestry were being targeted, and fit a profile, and you are being singled out. By the way, historically we were, but thankfully not deported by masked mobs. I still believe in the protest chant used for decades, “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us”.

We are being hunted. And if we stay silent, we will disappear.

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This reporting is made possible by the support of our Citizen Ben subscribers.