Homecoming for Wrongfully Deported American Citizen

by Alex DiBranco · 2010-09-14 11:30:00 UTC
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After being dumped in Mexico and stuck there for three months, Luis Alberto Delgado, an American-born citizen, has finally been allowed back into the United States, the Houston Chronicle reports. But the wrongful deportation and prolonged absence cost Delgado his construction job, and in this economy, nobody wants to have to embark on a desperate job search.

Delgado was the 19-year-old Texas resident who was stopped for not wearing his seat belt and then detained based on his lack of English fluency, a result of living abroad for most of his youth. Well, at least law enforcement claims that's why he and his brother were pulled over. I mean, I'm sure it wasn't an issue of driving while brown. Ahem. On the other hand, that immigration authorities refused to believe Delgado's birth certificate, Texas ID, and Social Security card proving his American citizenship was almost certainly an issue of racial profiling (so it's not a surprise that Delgado is mulling over a lawsuit against the injustice he was subjected to).

The young man was bullied into signing a form authorizing his voluntary deportation, except that it wasn't made clear to Delgado that by affixing his John Hancock he was okaying being shipped off to Mexico. His belief was that he would be allowed to return home in Houston if he just did as he was told.

Regrettably, the wrongful detention and deportation of American citizens, especially Latino individuals, isn't an isolated occurrence. And in a lot of ways, Delgado is one of the lucky ones: at least because he did grow up in Mexico and had family there, he wasn't as completely stranded as others who are dumped on the other side of the border. The Chronicle points out the particularly traumatic 2007 case in which immigration officials wrongfully deported a man who suffered from a mental disability who was "lost for months in Mexico." That's right, lost. His mother spent months searching for him in Tijuana, Mexico; when found, he was "malnourished and afraid of people."

Of course, U.S. officials didn't bother giving any help with the search, despite repeated requests from the family and the American Civil Liberties Union. They just deport 'em; if they make a mistake, hey, not their problem.

Photo credit: mcclouds

Alex DiBranco is a Change.org Editor who has worked for the Nation, Political Research Associates, and the Center for American Progress. She is now based in New York City.
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