Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old US citizen who was born in he country, was being held in Florida jail after being charged with illegally entering the state as an “unauthorised alien.” He was eventually released from the Leon County Jail on Thursday evening.
Despite being born in Grady County, Georgia, Lopez-Gomez was detained on Wednesday by the Florida Highway Patrol as he was crossing the state to go to work at his construction job in Tallahassee. According to CNN, the US-born man lives in Cairo, Georgia. He was allegedly travelling at 78 mph in a 65 mph zone when an officer pulled him over, as per the arrest report obtained local news outlet Florida Phoenix. The driver of the car was also in court as he was charged for driving without a license.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez charged under a law that was already blocked weeks ago
The US man was charged under a law Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed in February. The Senate Bill 4-C, blocked by a judge on April 4, rendered undocumented immigrants over the age of 18 “knowingly” entering Florida “after entering the U.S. by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers” illegal. Joining President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation efforts, the Sunshine State governor told reporters at the time after signing the bill, “Today the state has passed the strongest legislation to combat illegal immigration of any state in the country.”
US man’s mother presents birth certificate and social security card
After 20-year-old Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was suspected of violating the law, he appeared in court virtually on Thursday. Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans was provided with official documentation, including a copy of his birth certificate and social security card, proving his US citizenship.
Consequently, the judge declared, “In looking at it, and feeling it, and holding it up to the light, the court can clearly see the watermark to show that this is indeed an authentic document.”
Judge Riggans said that the court didn’t have the jurisdiction to release Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez. According to Newsweek, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had requested he be detained for 48 hours. As the American man still faces the charge, he is scheduled to appear in Leon County Court on May 6.
Upon his release, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez told Florida Phoenix, “I feel fine leaving that place. I felt bad in there. They didn’t give us anything to eat all day yesterday.”
Officials comment
Attorney Alan Greer, director and co-founder of the Community Justice Project, condemned the arrest, calling the ongoing turmoil “a series of horrors.” “No one should have been arrested under this law, let alone a U.S. citizen. The judge, the prosecutor, the sheriff and the jail are basically all throwing their hands up and saying, ‘ICE told us to hold him, so we’re going to keep holding him,’ even though no one disagrees with the fact that he’s a citizen.”
Meanwhile, Amy Godshall, American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida legal fellow and immigrants’ rights attorney, told The Independent, “The Constitution provides guardrails to protect due process and prevent unlawful arrests.”
She said his detention was “based on a patently false allegation that he entered the state while undocumented,” despite “his mother appearing in court with his Social Security card and his birth certificate showing his place of birth as the United States.”
Godshall also noted that since DeSantis’ law was blocked weeks ago, it meant “that law enforcement cannot make arrests under its blocked provisions. Full stop.” She criticised ICE for detaining US citizens “in these racially motivated raids and collateral arrests.”
Lopez-Gomez’s arrest comes after Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported to a notorious El Salvador jail due to an “administrative error.” Furthermore, reports of US citizens receiving erroneous emails from the Department of Homeland Security have also been on the rise.