U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Ricardo Portillo Guzman in east Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, October 22, 2026, during a targeted operation near the intersection of Idlewild Road and Idlebrook Drive, the agency said.
Source: Focal News — Charlotte
ICE said Guzman, who is from El Salvador, entered the United States illegally in 1988 and later received a green card. The agency said his criminal history includes felony convictions for selling amphetamine, carrying a prohibited weapon and carrying a concealed weapon, as well as offenses involving animal conservation and cruelty, and that it determined he could be removed from the country because of that history. Those are ICE's stated grounds; the report does not describe any new charge arising from Wednesday's stop.
Source: Focal News — Charlotte (reporting ICE's account)
Guzman's brother, Atilio Portillo, a naturalized US citizen, was driving him when agents stopped the vehicle. Portillo said he was detained briefly and then released. At a Friday, October 23, news conference organized by Siembra NC, he said agents did not tell him whom they were looking for after he identified himself as a citizen.
Source: Focal News — Charlotte
Portillo also said agents broke the vehicle's windows and pointed guns at him. Hoodline, in a separate October 23 report, said Portillo was on his way to work with his brother and a nephew when the stop happened near W.T. Harris Boulevard, that a gun was pointed at the citizen brother's face, and that Guzman was sent to Georgia afterwards — a transfer detail ICE had not confirmed in the reports reviewed. WFAE and The Washington Post also reported the citizen-at-gunpoint account on October 23, according to the American Immigration Lawyers Association's daily news clips.
Source: AILA Daily Immigration News Clips — Oct 23, 2026 (WFAE / Washington Post listings)
ICE said its officers are trained to use the minimum force necessary to address dangerous situations and to protect the public and officers. The reports reviewed did not specify what immigration proceedings Guzman may now face.