It Happened!

You knew it was only a matter of time that a U.S. citizen would be picked up by ICE. He was born in Georgia but he still in in ICE custody.

U.S.-born American citizen under ICE hold in Florida after driving from Georgia
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez is being held even though a county judge found his birth certificate “authentic” and said there wasn’t reason to consider him an “illegal alien.”

NBC News

By Suzanne Gamboa

April 17, 2025

 

 

A U.S.-born American citizen was being detained at the request of immigration authorities Thursday despite an advocate showing his U.S. birth certificate in court and a county judge finding no reason for him to be considered an “illegal alien” who illegally entered Florida.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was arrested Thursday evening by Florida Highway Patrol and charged under a state immigration law that has been temporarily blocked since early this month. Details of Gomez-Lopez’s arrest and detention were first reported by the Florida Phoenix news site.

This is ICE and where you were born doesn't matter to them... you look Latino, therefore you must be here illegally!

 Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s role is to enforce immigration laws that generally apply to noncitizens. American citizens are protected under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution from unreasonable search and seizure, arrest and detention.

Nonetheless, he remains detained locally at ICE’s request, said Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition who attended Thursday’s hearing. 

Florida Phoenix writes that,

 “I wanted to tell them, ‘Where are you going to take him? He is from here,'” his mother told the Phoenix in Spanish moments after exiting the courtroom. “I felt immense helplessness because I couldn’t do anything, and I am desperate to get my son out of there.”

 

[...]

 

 Based on her inspection of his birth certificate and Social Security card, Riggans said she found no probable cause for the charge. However, the state prosecutor insisted the court lacked jurisdiction over Lopez-Gomez’s release because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally asked the jail to hold him.

“This court does not have any jurisdiction other than what I’ve already done,” Riggans said.

News reports from today indicate that he has been finally released. News Nation reports...

 An American citizen was held in a Florida jail at the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite the county judge being able to see a U.S. birth certificate in court. 

[...]

 

 “It’s like this bureaucratic, dystopian nightmare of poorly written laws,” Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who attended the Thursday hearing, told NBC News. “We are living in a time when this man could get sent to El Salvador because, what, is he going to be treated like a stateless person?”

American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida legal fellow Amy Godshall told The Independent that Lopez-Gomez’s detention was “based on a patently false allegation that he entered the state while undocumented,” adding that “all this despite his mother appearing in court with his Social Security card and his birth certificate showing his place of birth as the United States.”

Under Trump's administration you are guilty until proved innocent.