4 People Illegally Arrested and Detained by ICE

Ana Patino writes about these four individuals who were not only arrested, but also detained several weeks... Seems like it didn't matter that they had proof of residency... \

Santa Fe

"A man from Santa Fe originally from El Salvador was illegally detained by ICE for 5 weeks and mistaken for another person. (See article here) According to the article Jose Cesar Guzman has legal status to live and work in the United States. He “was employed as the executive chef at the Inn of the Governors when he was arrested at his home June 19 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking for another man with a similar name”. Mr. Guzman’s attorney was able to establish his true identity in 10 minutes but ICE continued to hold the man for 5 weeks and even had started deportation proceedings against him. This is at least the 4th person who we have heard about who has been illegally arrested and incarcerated and in some cases deported by ICE.

San Diego

If you will recall ICE deported another American citizen, Pedro Guzman, recently even after Pedro wrote down when he was booked on a trespass charge that he had been born in the United States. Pedro, who is developmentally disabled, was lost in Mexico for months as his family desperately tried to find him. He was turned away from the border twice by government border officials when he tried to re-enter the U.S. The border officials would not believe that Pedro was an American citizen.

Los Angeles

Lenin Freud Perez-Torres was arrrested in Los Angeles and held in Los Angeles County jail for 25 days because he was mistaken for a deported felon. In August 2007 the California Supreme Court decided the State of California could be sued for negligence because they knew or should have known they had the wrong person. Perez Torres is 4 inches shorter and weighs 40 pounds less than the man who was deported. Perez-Torres has also filed a federal lawsuit against Chertoff and ICE.

Arlington, TX

Then there is American-citizen, Alicia Rodriguez, who happens to be of Mexican ancestry, was taken into custody and placed in the Arlington city jail in Texas because the authorities mistook her for an undocumented immigrant who had been deported three years earlier. Alicia, an accountant and mother of three children, missed her children’s first day of school and feared being deported.

was posted previously on Immigration Prof Blog http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/immigration/2007/09/is-there-racial.html