ACLU Sues US Govt over deportation of US citizen to Mexico

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ACLU Sues US Govt over deportation of US citizen to Mexico

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Reuters - Jun 11, 2007
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2007-06-11T224752Z_01_N11189193_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-IMMIGRATION-DEPORTATION.xml


Group says U.S. citizen wrongly deported to Mexico

By Kemp Powers
Reuters

Los Angeles - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S.
government on Monday over what the rights group said was the wrongful
deportation of a developmentally disabled U.S. citizen who is now
missing in Mexico.

ACLU spokesman Michael Soller said 29-year-old Pedro Guzman was serving
a 120-day sentence in a Los Angeles jail for trespassing when he was
deported to Tijuana, Mexico, on May 10 or May 11 for an alleged
immigration violation.

The group's suit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to have the
deportation order suspended and for the U.S. government to help locate
Guzman.

Guzman, who was born in Los Angeles and lived about 70 miles north in
Lancaster with his mother, could barely read and write, Soller said. He
did not know his phone number and kept his brother's telephone number
on a piece of paper.

But the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency in a written
statement denied Guzman's deportation, which followed immigration
checks at the jail, was improper.

"ICE only processes persons for removal when all available credible
evidence suggests the person is an alien," ICE officials said. "That
process was followed here and ICE has no reason to believe that it
improperly removed Pedro Guzman."

The ACLU said Guzman told booking officers that he was born in
California.

"This is a recurring nightmare for every person of color of immigrant
roots," Mark Rosenbaum, the legal director of the ACLU in southern
California, said in a statement.

The only telephone call Guzman made came shortly after his deportation,
on May 11 and was received by his sister in law, Soller said.

"The last thing she heard him do was ask someone nearby 'Where am I?'
and then the line went dead," Soller said. Guzman has not been heard
from since and is assumed lost in Mexico.

Members of Guzman's family, including his mother, brother and sister in
law, have traveled to Tijuana and searched shelters, jails and
hospitals trying to find him.

"We're asking the U.S. government to take responsibility for finding
him," Soller said. "The family just wants him back."

Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

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