Posted on 07/27/2009 7:25:02 AM PDT by thecodont
(07-26) 18:37 PDT -- The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months.
Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars. An aunt helped him track down his father's birth certificate and his own, his parents' marriage certificate, his father's school, military and Social Security records.
After nine months, a judge determined that he was a citizen, but immigration authorities appealed the decision. He was detained for five more months before he found legal help and a judge ordered his case dropped.
"It was a nightmare," said Veloz, 37, a Los Angeles air conditioning installer.
Veloz is one of hundreds of U.S. citizens who have landed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and struggled to prove they don't belong there, according to advocacy groups and legal scholars, who have tracked such cases around the country. Some citizens have been deported.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Who knew?
From The SF Chronicle...prepare for an advanced case of “heartbleed”, unless the story happens to concern average, white Americans.
WHERE was he that he was mistaken for an illegal.
This does not “just happen” on the street.
Was he with smugglers?
Was he with illegal aliens?
notice how this article does not have a problem with “illegal” as a word. No undocumented here.
According to the article “Veloz was automatically a citizen at birth, though his parents never obtained his certificate of citizenship.” Couldn’t have meant that much to him or his parents if they never bothered to get the citizenship papers.
Unfortunate that a citizen was caught up in all the chaos created by the presence of 20 million or so illegal aliens, and the failure of our government to enforce the law for more than twenty years since the 1987 amnesty.
Not the first and won’t be the last case of an innocent being detained for all sorts of suspected violations of various laws.
This article proves nothing and offers nothing worthwhile. Occasional such stories are inevitable.
Is he a natural-born citizen at that? (Unless it was a foreign birth certificate for his father.) Speaking of which, why are people now talking only about whether Presidente Zero was born in the U.S.? That's not enough. You have to be natural-born.
This guy may qualify for CIC ahead of Obama.
does the defendant have any OTHER criminal activity?
sometimes the immigration courts are used to keep drug dealersr in custody when the bonds are too low in the federal or state courts. (eg. ten million vs 100k)
It is odd to appeal a finding of citizenship so this suggests that this person has more in their legal court repitior than just an “oops” in the wrong place.
Yeah, this happens all the time. *snort*
Do you have a certificate of citizenship?
“It is odd to appeal a finding of citizenship so this suggests that this person has more in their legal court repitior than just an “oops” in the wrong place.”
Bump
They love horror stories like this and innocent death row inmates to make you believe that this happens all the time.
Of course nobody on this site would give a damn, because it would not be your sons/daughters citizens being arrested because of their looks.
Actually I do care...it shows inefficiency and exactly all the beurocractic nonsense that one has to go through..the judge found him a citizen and they appealed...nuts..the guy is the son of a Vietnam Veteran for cripes sake!
This is horrifying, first they detain an American, then after someone has established that they are an American the ICE tries to continue detaining him. Talk about not having any rights.
Yet, Obama does not have to prove a damned thing!!!
Mr. Veloz was able to produce a BIRTH certificate?
SHOCKING!!
Seriously, even the best government agency makes mistakes (and ICE is FAR from the best government agency). Citizens who are wrongly detained should receive an sincere apology and some form of reasonable financial compensation.
ICE should make every effort to tighten up their procedures so as to minimze errors, but there is no reason to halt immigration enforcement over few isolated cases of mistaken identity.
“According to the article “Veloz was automatically a citizen at birth, though his parents never obtained his certificate of citizenship.” Couldn’t have meant that much to him or his parents if they never bothered to get the citizenship papers.
“
If you are born here you are a citizen by birth.
There is no such thing as a certificate of citizenship need for native born citizens. Do you have one ?
Whomever wrote this has no clue of what they are talking about.
This guys father was a Vietnam Vet , he should have never been treated this way.
Cheech and Chong sang of a similar incident:
Born In East L.A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OpcY3_1jg
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