Posted on 09/03/2015 9:55:16 AM PDT by nickcarraway
It took a lot of mistakes -- by the victim’s parents, by attorneys and a big one by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Add it all up and you have an American citizen facing deportation to Mexico.
Ricardo Salazar on Wednesday walked out of the West County Detention Facility in Richmond. Despite being free for the first time in four months, he is broken hearted after missing his mother’s funeral in June.
"It was hard because I didn’t get to say goodbye to her," he said.
In a tragic irony, Salazar's trouble began in May when he left his home in south Texas to travel to Mexico to buy less expensive medicines for his ailing mother. But when he tried to return home, Salazar, who was born in Mexico but whose mother was a U.S. citizen, was only carrying his green card.
His mother made mistake number one when the family reentered the United States shortly after he was born.
"What they should've done is apply for him as a citizen," Salazar's attorney Joseph LaCome said. "What they did is apply for the entire family as lawful permanent residents."
Customs officials saw an arrest record with the most recent entry six years ago. That would not have been a problem for a U.S. citizen but posed a hurdle to Salazar because he was carrying just his green card.
Salazar told any ICE agent who would listen that he is an American citizen, but nobody listened.
"I keep telling them, 'My mom's a U.S. citizen, she was born in Texas, in Corpus Christi,'" Salazar said. "They ignored me." That was mistake number two.
"They are supposed to interview the person, record it and take sworn testimony," LaCome said.
Meanwhile, the third mistake was made by Brownsville-area attorneys who conjured up a defense based on Salazar's green card status.
But since jails on the U.S.-Mexico border are overcrowded, Salazar was bussed to Richmond.
"I was able to figure it out in 15 minutes," said LaCome, adding that he contacted Salazar's family and got a hold of documents that proved his citizenship and helped him go home.
"The first thing I have to go see is my mom's grave," said Salazar, adding that he is considering filing a lawsuit.
In an email to NBC Bay Area, ICE officials said they take "very seriously claims of U.S. citizens being improperly detained" and have "stringent safeguards to protect against the possibility that a citizen is detained or removed."
Poor slob. He should have claimed that yes, He is in fact an illegal, that he is NOT a US citizen, and they would have green lighted him right on in.
boo hoo hoo
“I was Born in East LA”
A US citizen with no ID other than a “green card”?? Bizarre to say the least.
Did he speak English, or like so many of people with “conflicted citizenship parentage,” don’t bother to learn or speak even rudimentary English!
Did he speak English, or like so many of people with “conflicted citizenship parentage,” don’t bother to learn or speak even rudimentary English!
Reminds me of that movie.
A US citizen wouldn’t be holding a green card. He was confused about his own status as a citizen or a resident.
my thoughts exactly
Yes.
To go to even to and from Mexico or Canada now one needs a passport or passport card for land travel.
Everyone.
When he tries to use a green card, that is a red flag.
Guy was dumb.
At the same time, if he really is a US citizen he should not have been held four months.
This isn’t the Soviet Union, a lot of people don’t carry, “their papers.” However, when you go to another country, it would highly advised.
Here come the sob stories by NBC. Never on the crimes they commit, just to push Amnesty.
Yup...lawsuit is pending.
Four months is a long time, but he had no passport and probably never applied for a US passport. If he had, his birth records and photo ID would have been pulled up almost immediately. He probably also had no official fingerprints on file anywhere in a govt database to show a past history in the US. However, he did have a green card which would then indicate he was not a US citizen, but rather a US resident born outside the US. So he screwed himself by somehow getting an invalid green card (probably illegally) and failing to have proper identification as a US citizen. He probably didn’t even have access to his birth certificate and that had to be tracked down as well. So 4 months sounds about right.
At any entry point if all you have is a green card and a rap sheet I’d expect trouble. Thing is, he couldn’t get an ID retrieved from somewhere? No passport? License? SS card? Naturalization papers? The story just seems odd.
If he doesn’t know his legal status, we should make him an honorary illegal and he’ll sail through, with free stuff too.
Yes. He really messed this up himself.
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