The U.S. citizen who was held in federal custody for 10 days said he told a Border Patrol agent he was from New Mexico, contradicting a statement by that agency that he never asserted his citizenship until he was in front of a judge.

Jose Hermosillo told KOB-TV in Albuquerque that his ordeal began when he was approached by a Border Patrol officer while on a stroll in Tucson in early April.

“He said, ‘Where are you from?’ and I said, ‘New Mexico,’” Hermosillo told the TV station April 22. He said the agent then asked him, “Can you show me your birth certificate?”

Hermosillo was released from custody April 17 after his family presented documents proving his citizenship in a Tucson federal courtroom. Prosecutors dismissed the misdemeanor charge of illegal entry that was filed against him.

Hermosillo gave some of his first interviews since his release to two outlets ― the Albuquerque television station and the online newsletter Popular Information.

KOB-TV reported that Hermosillo repeatedly told Border Patrol agents he was a citizen, but they didn't believe him.

“They were saying I’m from Mexico,” Hermosillo said in the on-camera interview, “but I’m a U.S. citizen.”

A Border Patrol spokesperson, John Mennell, previously told The Arizona Republic there was "no indication that (Hermosillo) told agents he was a U.S. citizen." Mennell did not provide a new statement April 23 regarding the Hermosillo interviews.

Hermosillo told the online newsletter that he never told immigration authorities he was born in Mexico. The criminal complaint filed against him, since dismissed, contained a sworn statement signed by Hermosillo asserting that fact.

Accounts of Jose Hermosillo's encounter with Border Patrol differ

In each interview, Hermosillo had slightly different versions of his encounter with Border Patrol.

Hermosillo told the television station that a Border Patrol agent approached him. He told the online newsletter that he approached the Border Patrol agent parked in a vehicle because he was lost and looking for help.

A Border Patrol spokesman has said Hermosillo came to its Tucson headquarters on foot and made himself known at the vehicle gate on Swan Road.

Hermosillo did not have any identification with him, explaining why in the newsletter interview that published April 23 .

Hermosillo told Popular Information he had a seizure and an ambulance took him to a Tucson hospital. He did not have an ID with him during that emergency, he told the newsletter.

When he was released, he said, he started walking around the city looking for how to get back to where he was staying. Hermosillo said he was visiting the family of his girlfriend who live in the southern Arizona city.

As he was walking, he said he approached a Border Patrol vehicle to ask for help.

Hermosillo gave Popular Information a more pointed version of his interaction with the Border Patrol agent than he did to the TV station. He said after he told the agent he was from New Mexico, the agent accused him of thinking the agent was “stupid.”

“Don’t make me (out) like (I’m) stupid,” Hermosillo said the agent told him. “I know you’re from Mexico.”

Hermosillo did not tell the newsletter what hospital he was treated at. Online maps show the nearest hospital is an hour walk from the Border Patrol headquarters.

His parents offered a third version of how Hermosillo ended up speaking to Border Patrol. His parents told CBS News that he left the Tucson home he was visiting in the middle of the night and wandered the streets on foot.

The Arizona Republic has been unable to reach Hermosillo or his family. The attorney who handled his criminal case has not returned a request for an interview.

Transcript of Border Patrol interview with Jose Hermosillo questioned

Hermosillo told Popular Information he never told an agent he was born in Mexico, or that he was in the country illegally.

A document released by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shows a written transcript of the sworn statement he gave to an agent. In it, Hermosillo said he was born in Mexico, was a citizen of Mexico and had no claim to being a United States citizen.

Hermosillo signed the document, using his first name, spelled in large print letters. He did so, he told Popular Information, because the agent told him to “sign everything.”

Hermosillo’s girlfriend told Tucson-based Arizona Public Media that Hermosillo had learning disabilities and was illiterate.

According to statistics published by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an average of 11 U.S. citizens were arrested per year since 2018.

In fiscal year 2024, 13 U.S. citizens were arrested by immigration authorities. None were removed from the country.

Thirty U.S. citizens arrested in fiscal year 2018, the highest number in the past seven years, with two removed, according to the ICE numbers. That was during President Donald Trump's first term.

Hermosillo told KOB-TV he would advise people in Tucson to be “careful” and “take their birth certificate and their Social Security” card with them.