ICE is getting sued after detaining a U.S. citizen for nearly three weeks

A Guatemalan-born man who has been a U.S. citizen since 2001 is suing ICE, alleging he was illegally detained by the agency for weeks because they assumed he was an undocumented immigrant (racial profiling, anyone?):

The lawsuit holds that Rony Chavez Aguilar was held in ICE custody for nearly three weeks without being able to see a judge, and without knowing why he was being detained.

Those officers initially arrested Aguilar on drug charges, according to Roth. He pleaded guilty, and spent about two weeks in county jail for the offense. After the two weeks were up, he would have been free to go. But ICE thought he was undocumented, and wanted to deport him.

The officers kept him in the county jail so agents with ICE’s Chicago field office could take him into custody. According to the complaint, they picked him up on or around March 7 and moved him to the Boone County Jail in Burlington, Kentucky, where they contract out space to detain people facing deportation.

According to his attorney Charles Roth, when Aguilar tried to tell immigration officials that he was a U.S. citizen, “basically they said, ‘Tell it to the judge.’” But, “they didn’t let him see one,” notes the Daily Beast.

When the complaint was filed, ICE hadn’t yet filed what’s called a “Notice to Appear” in immigration court against Aguilar. That notice would be the document officially charging him, and would require him to go to court.

“ICE Chicago did not obtain a judicial warrant to arrest Plaintiff; has not provided a sworn, particularized statement of probable cause; has not promptly brought him before a detached and neutral judicial officer for a probable cause hearing; or has not brought him before a judge to understand the charges against him and receive important advisals regarding his due process rights, amongst other procedural protections,” the complaint says.

Roth said Aguilar was released from detention shortly after they filed the suit on March 27.

People may be surprised to find out that Aguilar’s experience is nothing new. Despite the fact that “it's illegal for U.S. immigration authorities to hold Americans in detention,” ICE has been attempting to deport U.S. citizens for years:

It...highlights another ongoing challenge for ICE: accidentally arresting U.S. citizens. Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Clearinghouse found that from 2008 to 2012, the agency asked local jails to detain 834 U.S. citizens so they could move to deport them. As Trump’s efforts to speed up deportations continue, it’s likely more American citizens like Aguilar will be caught in the dragnet.

Many Latino U.S. citizens and permanent residents have already been wondering if they should carry around birth certificates or passports. This just reinforces that fear. Welcome to “Existing While Brown.”