How a wrong turn at Fort Bragg NC led to an ICE detention center in Georgia
Luis Alonso Delgadillo Perez hadn’t been to Fayetteville before taking a contractor job installing floors in the area in early March.
So it wasn’t too surprising he took a wrong turn down an unfamiliar road when he was headed back home to Chapel Hill.
The road led him to one of the gates of Fort Bragg.
From there, the Mexican-national — who has lived and worked in the U.S. for over 20 years — was asked for proof of his citizenship, a question that for many undocumented people signals a potential entrance into the immigration detention system.
At least 10 people who have mistakenly found themselves at military checkpoints across North Carolina have wound up in ICE custody since late last year. These detentions, according to watchdog Seimbra NC, are a growing trend.
Samuel Reyes de Luna, one of Perez’s relatives, got a call in early March about his detention. Military officials told De Luna that Perez had a warrant out for his arrest for being in the country without documentation.
Eventually, Perez’s family would learn that in the span of a few days he’d been transferred between at least two detention centers, ultimately ending up in a facility in Irwin County, Georgia, according to his relatives.
De Luna said it’s hard to imagine what someone would do in Perez’s place.
“You feel kind of intimidated,” De Luna told The News & Observer Monday night. “I just couldn’t imagine how he would feel.”
Siembra NC said detentions of people who find themselves in similar situations as Perez are rising. But according to military officials, it may be a standing order.
‘Subject to vetting’
In addition to Fort Bragg, Siembra NC says it has received reports of people being detained at Camp Lejeune, the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point and Marine Corps Air Stations Cherry Point and New River.
A Marine Corps communications official told The N&O everyone approaching a military installation is “subject to vetting.”
“These procedures are not new and are part of routine installation access-control procedures,” Nat Fahy, communications director for Marine Corps Installations East, said.
Signs warn drivers they’re nearing a military checkpoint, Fahy said. When a “foreign national” arrives at a Marine gate, a Navy investigative arm is called in to coordinate with federal authorities.
“Department of War law enforcement personnel do not make immigration determinations,” Fahy said. “They follow established protocols and coordinate with the appropriate federal agencies.”
U.S. Army officials at Fort Bragg declined to answer The N&O’s questions “to protect the integrity of our security measures and ensure the safety of our personnel.”
Siembra NC reports other detentions
Siembra NC has received several reports about people being handed over to ICE after being stopped at a Fort Bragg gate. One man took a wrong turn near Fort Bragg while working as a delivery driver.
“His 12-year-old child was present at the time of the detention,” Siembra NC’s release said. “He has since been deported.”
Another: An asylum seeker entered a road leading to Marine Corps Air Station New River late last year, and realized too late that he’d made a wrong turn.
“He has been detained at Stewart Detention Center for the past three months,” the group reported in the press release.
Similar situations have been reported at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base in San Diego, according to local media reports. And a group of attorneys have started sounding the alarm.
Camp Pendleton is part of a partnership with federal immigration authorities, California media reported earlier this month. An attorney in the area told NBC 7 San Diego that he thinks at least 10 people a day are stopped at the gates and detained that way.
And in another case last year in San Diego, a Marine’s parents were detained and one of them deported after visiting him on his base, AP reported.
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 11:09 AM.
