A US citizen was mistaken for an illegal and wanted to deport

Photo: twitter / ICE
@ICEgov

US National Security Officer in 2016, arrested 39-year-old US citizen Sergio Carrillo and sent him to a detention center for illegal immigrants in Los Angeles who were awaiting a court decision on their deportation.

This arrest was the beginning of a convoluted ordeal for Carrillo, writes LA Times.

The statements of the man that he is a US citizen caused ridicule of officers, and, in spite of them, the process of his deportation was begun.

Government officials took 4 of the day to admit their mistake and free Carrillo.

He sued due to illegal arrest, and as part of the settlement of the claim, the government will pay him 20 000 dollars.

An ICE spokeswoman declined to comment on this case, citing federal privacy laws.

The service stressed that "ICE will never consciously take coercive measures or detain a person if there is evidence that he is a US citizen."

Carrillo said that he was born in Mexico, but this was the result of a confluence of circumstances. His parents, who lived in California as lawful permanent residents, went to Mexico on vacation, and there his mother began preterm birth.

As a child, Carrillo automatically became a US citizen when his mother underwent the naturalization process.

As an adult, he twice had problems with law enforcement: a conviction for transferring concealed weapons in the 2007 year, and another one in the 2011 year - for transmitting sexually explicit materials to a minor. In the second case, Carrillo was sentenced to 240 days in jail and 3 years probation.

These crimes and the fact of the birth of Carrillo in Mexico, apparently, became the reason for the increased attention of the officials to the man.

If he really was an illegal, these crimes would make the process of his deportation a priority.

It is noteworthy that in the 2011 year, after serving the sentence, the ICE officers interrogated Carrillo and released him, probably making sure that he was in the US legally, but for some reason this question was raised again in 2016.

However, none of his statements could convince immigration officers, they began to recheck the information and released him only after Carrillo's relatives hired a lawyer, and he sent several documents to the department confirming the legality of the man’s stay in the United States.

Immigration lawyers say this case is an illustration of a broader problem. The databases of immigration authorities are inaccurate and outdated, which leads to the fact that dozens of American citizens are detained in immigration prisons every year.

Since 2002, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) mistakenly detained at least 2840 US citizens, suspecting them of an illegal stay in the US and being deported, at least 214 of them were detained for a certain period of time it turned out.

Since January, 2017, the ICE has ceased to publish information about those taken into custody, and it is impossible to know how many US citizens were mistakenly detained during raids, and the number of deportations conducted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

One of these cases was the arrest of Guadalupe Plastinsky in March 2017, she was sent to the ICE Immigration Prison, despite the fact that she had received 2 citizenship decades ago. 59-year-old woman was released only after her daughter showed the ICE agents a mother's passport.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Political Asylum in the Trump era

Immigration in the USA - how not to fall for the scam

How the US deports illegal immigrants: a step-by-step procedure

How much does the deportation of one illegal man cost

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.