Frenchman's story about being detained by ICE is making headlines. Here are the facts

During U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in Minnesota in early 2026, a claim spread online that federal immigration agents allegedly detained a 26-year-old Frenchman, Julien Pereira, for a month after his employer said there was a problem with his work visa. Per social media posts and media reports, Pereira said, while in detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he had to sleep on the floor of a crowded detention center, had to have his ankles chained and did not have access to water or food.

The rumor appeared on Facebook and Instagram. On X, Alex Taylor, a British journalist in France, relayed the rumor citing Le HuffPost (HuffPost's French-language publication). Taylor's X post read (archived):

Horrific experience of an MBA Frenchman in an ICE migrant centre because his visa was delayed

Sleeping on the floor in a "cell" with 80 people, lights on non-stop, hand-cuffed and ankles chained, referred to by a number, he lost 7 kilos in a month. "Their aim is simply to break you to pieces"👇

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It's true that Pereira described such conditions at ICE detainment facilities, where he said the agency kept him for a month, according to reporting by reputable news outlets. Snopes has yet to obtain primary evidence to corroborate the story, such as federal records or an interview with Pereira. For that reason, we are not putting a rating on this story.

Snopes attempted to contact Pereira via numerous channels to interview him ourselves and independently verify details of the other media reports. Snopes also contacted Taylor to ask how they verified the information. We will update this article if we receive responses.

Le HuffPost reporter Anne-Fleur Andrle, who authored the story about Pereira, told Snopes she viewed documents to corroborate Pereira's story, without saying how she accessed them. 

We also reached out to ICE and the Border Patrol, agencies under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security that enforce immigration laws. Those agencies did not respond.

We also asked DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin to confirm or deny Pereira's story that federal agents had detained him and held him for a month. Her emailed responses did not address our questions. Asked directly if she denied the story, she declined to answer.

Pereira's story

Multiple reputable news media outlets, such as France 24 in English and NPR, told Pereira's story. For example, on Jan. 27, 2026, Le HuffPost published its article (archived) with the headline, translated from French, "'Their goal is to break you': detained by ICE for a month, this Frenchman tells his story."

According to that article (as well as several other interviews with Pereira in French and English), in March 2025, Pereira was at the U.S.-Canadian border attempting to leave the U.S. — he had lived in the U.S. since the age of 17 — when Border Patrol detained him. According to the various reports and interviews, he resided in the U.S. legally on visas that allowed him to study and work in the country. Here's the interview Pereira gave France 24's William Hilderbrandt:

Pereira: yeah, I I was offered a job. I did all my bachelor, my MBA a few years before...

Hilderbrandt: ... and you were living in the US for eight years.

Pereira: Yeah, in total eight years. So I got offered a job switching from a student visa to a work visa. We did everything correctly. And uh one day my employer called me and he's like hey we had some issue with your visa. You need to leave today.

According to his LinkedIn profile (archived), Pereira obtained a Masters in Business Administration at Limestone University in Gaffney, South Carolina. Before that, his LinkedIn profile indicated he had been a member of the men's tennis team at Point University, a Christian college in Georgia. In 2020, Pereira began work as a tennis sparring partner in Connecticut, per his LinkedIn. After his MBA graduation, he joined a club as a coach and manager. (We reached out to both that club and Limestown University to confirm details of his LinkedIn profile, and we'll update this report if we receive responses.)

He told Le HuffPost he received a job offer from another club late in 2024 that committed to sponsoring his visa. Pereira started working there.

In March 2025, that employer reportedly told him there was a problem with his visa, according to Pereira, and his lawyer urged him to leave the U.S. immediately. In his interview with BFMTV, a reputable French news channel, he claimed that the employer lied about having the right documents for him to stay in the U.S. (The name of that employer is unknown, as well as its side of what happened. Snopes did not obtain any more details details on the alleged issue with his visa.)

Le HuffPost and other news outlets reported Pereira was not able to fly to France due to timing so he drove to Canada instead, where Border Patrol detained him. He said agents sent him to an ICE-run detention facility in Batavia, near Buffalo, New York. He reportedly stayed there two weeks before agents transferred him to another detention center in Otay Mesa, California. In April 2025, a judge released him and gave him one month to organize his departure, according to the article.

In his interviews, Pereira described the conditions in the detention centers. For example, Pereira told NPR:

They put chains around my hip. They put handcuffs on my feet. I tried to stay calm, but it's tough to stay, you know, focused, calm. You're stressed. [...] We have no water. We haven't drunk water in a while. And they just put the music as loud as possible, almost, like, making fun of us. We're not asking you to be nice, just have some human compassion or something. I don't know. We're not animals. [...] You're just starving in there. Like, I lost seven kilos. I'm dirty. I cannot sleep, really. I'm cold in there.

He said in the various interviews the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in Minnesota inspired him speak to the media about what had happened to him and raise awareness around detention conditions. He also said he loved the U.S., but federal authorities have banned him from entering the country for five years.

Snopes has covered many rumors surrounding the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens killed by ICE and Border Patrol in Minneapolis in early 2026. These included false claims that Pretti, who was a nurse, had been fired for misconduct and Good had a criminal record.