AP review finds ICE has held man claiming U.S. citizenship since January
Rights & JusticeDeveloping
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The Facts
- Immigration authorities have detained the man since January and sought to deport him.
- The man is described as having a mental illness.
- The man's mother, lawyers and public records say he was born in the United States.
- The Department of Homeland Security disputes that the man is a U.S. citizen.
- DHS alleges the birth certificate used to obtain his U.S. passport was fraudulent.
- ICE has no authority to detain U.S. citizens.
- Immigration lawyers say a nearly 10-month improper detention would be rare but not unprecedented.
Context
Why does the citizenship dispute matter?
ICE has no authority to detain U.S. citizens. The man's citizenship is contested: his mother, lawyers and public records say he was born in the United States, while DHS disputes that conclusion. U.S. News & World R… Hindustan Times
What is DHS's position?
DHS says the man is not a U.S. citizen and alleges that the birth certificate he used to obtain a U.S. passport was fraudulent. Hindustan Times Siasat Daily
How unusual is a detention of this length?
Immigration lawyers say ICE has at times detained U.S. citizens for hours or days because of mistaken identity or delayed citizenship verification; they describe a nearly 10-month improper detention as rare but not unprecedented. U.S. News & World R… Hindustan Times
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- ICE has no authority to detain U.S. citizens, and both sides treat the nearly ten-month unresolved detention as an intolerable delay demanding resolution.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the case is about a government that must justify continued detention now, or a factual dispute that simply needs faster adjudication either way.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is empirical, not just rhetorical: it hinges on which unresolved evidentiary question — the authenticity of his birth certificate or DHS's unsubstantiated fraud allegation — a court or agency has not yet settled.
How left and right read it
When an agency with no authority to detain citizens can hold someone for nearly ten months, the burden of proof belongs to the government, not the detained. His mother, his lawyers and public records all place his birth in this country, so a bare allegation of a fraudulent birth certificate cannot be enough to keep him locked up. Why does a claim like that get to outlast the proof?
Immigration enforcement only keeps public confidence when it moves at the speed of evidence, and this case has run since January without resolution. Settle it. Confirmed citizenship means release, because ICE holds no authority over citizens; proven fraud means the removal case proceeds.
The receipts — 9 sources
Wire services (7)
Independent coverage (2)
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