US citizen detained by immigration

Winter 2007
Roger Capron
Co-Director of the Family Support Center

Who do we advocate for—the principality (in this case, the government)? Or the person?

Adriana called me last Thursday. Her young spouse, James, had been taken by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the former Border Patrol) to the NW Detention Center in Tacoma. Adriana insisted that James was a US Citizen, born inCalifornia. She told me how the ICE officials didn’t believe him and had put him in removal proceedings.

My advocacy mode kicked in, and I began to ask more questions: Where exactly was James born? When? Do you have an original birth certificate? Any other identification? I told Adriana to ask for specific information when James called from the Detention Center. Next, I called the NW Detention Center and asked them to investigate our claim that James is a citizen. The
investigation results came the next day when James told his wife that ICE had reviewed his birth certificate and said he’d better get a lawyer. Adriana insisted that he was born in the USA,
thus making him a citizen.

Sometimes I wonder why I pass through a stage in advocacy when I trust more in American institutions than in the individual; or why I have tended to believe so blindly the individual under the influence of his or her allegiance to their office and position. Such was my weakness after hearing this news. Wondering why someone would go to the pains of making up a story about their citizenship, I reluctantly called an attorney friend of mine in Seattle to ask for advice. He expressed the same doubt about James’s story, but suggested that if it were true, it would best be handled by our US Congressman’s Office in Bellingham.

I didn’t expect to get very far with a congressperson on a case that didn’t sound too credible, but to my complete surprise, I was met with an enthusiastic desire to check into the validity of James’s situation. So, after more phone calls and a visit to the congressman’s office to let them take copies of James’s birth certificate and other identifying documents, we waited for the outcome. Two days ago James called to ask that someone come to Tacoma to pick him up! ICE had let him go and then backpedaled, claiming James never told them he was a citizen.