Tag Archives: US citizen

Guardian: The desperate drive to secure passports for thousands of US-born Haitian kids – before it’s too late

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Advocates in Springfield, Ohio – a city thousands of Haitians now call home – fear the fallout of Trump’s DHS revoking temporary protected status for Haitian nationals

Among the group is a small number of charity volunteers working to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster: that thousands of US-born Haitian children could become stateless, or separated from their families.

“In the last several months we realized that the closer we got to the deportations and revocation of statuses meant that all these people who have babies … if they don’t have passports for their children, how are they going to take them out of the country with them?” says Casey Rollins, a volunteer at the local St Vincent de Paul chapter.

“All you have to look at is the previous [Trump] administration.” A Reuters report from 2023 found that nearly 1,000 children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and 2018 had never been reunited.

Springfield is home to about 1,217 and counting American-born Haitian children under the age of four, with several thousand more dependants under the age of 18. While the number of adults in the Ohio town of 60,000 people legally in the country on TPS is not known, local leaders estimate 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian nationals have come to Springfield, drawn by employment opportunities, since 2017. In April, data provided by the Springfield city school district to the Springfield News-Sun found that the district had 1,258 students enrolled as English language learners in K-12 schools, though that doesn’t mean all are children of Haitian descent.

For three months, Rollins, volunteers at Springfield Neighbors United and others have been working with dozens of Haitians who turn up at charity organizations seeking advice and help every day. One of the most requested issues from parents, Rollins says, is figuring out how to apply for birth certificates for their children, before it’s too late.

“If we can’t stop the deportations, we want to help get them a passport. That way, if they are deported or go to Canada or another welcoming nation, they’d be able to take the child,” she says.

“If it takes three or four months [to complete the bureaucratic process from securing a birth certificate to acquiring a passport], we have got to get moving on this.”

The desperate drive to secure passports for thousands of US-born Haitian kids – before it’s too late
Advocates in Springfield, Ohio – a city thousands of Haitians now call home – fear the fallout of Trump’s DHS revoking temporary protected status for Haitian nationals

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/04/passports-haitian-kids-tps-trump-administration

Guardian: Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’

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As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

The son of an American citizen and military veteran – but who has no citizenship to any country – was deported from the US to Jamaica in late May.

Jermaine Thomas’s deportation, recently reported on by the Austin Chronicle, is one of a growing number of immigration cases involving military service members’ relatives or even veterans themselves who have been ensnared in the Trump administration’s mass deportation program.

As the Chronicle reported, Thomas was born on a US army base in Germany to an American citizen father, who was originally born in Jamaica and is now dead. Thomas does not have US, German or Jamaican citizenship – but Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agency deported him anyway to Jamaica, a country in which he had never set foot.

Thomas had spent two-and-a-half months incarcerated while waiting for an update on his case. He was previously at the center of a case brought before the US supreme court regarding his unique legal status.

The federal government argued that Thomas – who had previously received a deportation order – was not a citizen simply because he was born on a US army base, and it used prior criminal convictions to buttress the case against him. He petitioned for a review of the order, but the supreme court denied him, finding his father “did not meet the physical presence requirement of the [law] in force at the time of Thomas’s birth”.

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In another recent case, the wife of another Marine Corps veteran was detained by Ice despite still breastfeeding her three-month-old daughter. According to the Associated Press, the veteran’s wife had been going through a process to obtain legal residency.

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In March, Ice officials arrested the daughter of a US veteran who had been fighting a legal battle regarding her status. Alma Bowman, 58, was taken into custody by Ice during a check-in at the Atlanta field office, despite her having lived in the US since she was 10 years old.

Bowman was born in the Philippines during the Vietnam war, to a US navy service member from Illinois stationed there. She had lived in Georgia for almost 50 years. Her permanent residency was revoked following a minor criminal conviction from 20 years ago, leading her to continue a legal battle to obtain citizenship in the US.

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In another recent case, a US army veteran and green-card holder left on his own to South Korea. His deportation order was due to charges related to drug possession and an issue with drug addiction after being wounded in combat in the 1980s, for which he earned the prestigious Purple Heart citation.

“I can’t believe this is happening in America,” Sae Joon Park, who had held legal permanent residency, told National Public Radio. “That blows me away – like, [it is] a country that I fought for.”

Ice arrests of US military veterans and their relatives are on the rise: ‘a country that I fought for’
As Trump urges more deportations, veterans are seeing their parents, children and even themselves detained

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/28/us-military-veterans-detained-trump

Guardian: Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children

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Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

Federal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. About a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home.

Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life.

“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t have to do this, you scared my son, my baby,’” Ramirez said.

Ramirez said she was not given any warning from the authorities that they wanted to enter her home and that everyone who lives there is a US citizen.

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The agents told Ramirez that they were searching for her boyfriend, but did not tell her why, according to NBC. Ramirez told the news station that he was involved in a vehicle collision with a truck carrying federal agents last week. She said it was an accident and unintentional.

Of course, ICE & CBP “enhance” the tale:

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told NBC: “Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was arrested because he rammed his car into a CBP vehicle, causing significant damage and obstructed the work of our agents and officers during the course of a law enforcement operation.”

The spokesperson said agents were “assaulted” during this incident and “additional rioters threw rocks and other objects at our personnel”.

Poor babies, got the reception they deserved!

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return the Guardian’s request for comment.

Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children
Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/27/california-home-raid-huntington-park

Newsweek: Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months

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Claudio Cortez-Herrera, a green card holder from Mexico who has lived in the U.S. for more than two decades and has two U.S. citizen children, has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials for over two months.

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Cortez-Herrera, 34, has been in the U.S. for over two decades, his fiancee Leticia Ortiz Lopez wrote in an online fundraiser seeking financial assistance for legal fees and child support. He is the father of their two U.S. citizen children, a 2-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son with autism.

She told local outlet 13 On Your Side that he was on his way to work and “putting in the house payment across the street at the drop box post office, when he got surrounded by 10 ICE agents, and he was taken.”

ICE confirmed in a Facebook post that Cortez-Herrera was arrested by Detroit-based immigration officials on April 23. Newsweek confirmed in the ICE detainee database that he is still in custody, held at the Calhoun County Correctional Center in Battle Creek, Michigan.

In the Facebook post, ICE noted Cortez-Herrera’s previous criminal record, writing, “Convicted in New Castle, Del [Delaware],” noting that his conviction was for “Planning first-degree arson & first-degree reckless endangering.”

Newsweek has been unable to independently verify the conviction.

His wife said in the GoFundMe: “Over 20 years ago, as a teen, he made a mistake. He took responsibility and left that life behind.”

Green card-holder with 2 US citizen kids held by ICE for over two months
Claudio Cortez-Herrera, who has been in the U.S. for decades but served seven months on a racketeering charge as a teen, has been detained by ICE.

https://www.newsweek.com/green-card-holder-2-us-citizen-kids-held-ice-over-two-months-2091660

Newsweek: Man married to US citizen detained by ICE after delaying green-card process

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An Alabama woman who married an Iranian man she met online is asking for financial help after he was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) even though he had a visa, she said.

She said Monday that they “are devastated, confused and overwhelmed” and that she’s “trying to do everything I can to get him home.”

Morgan Karimi (Gardner) of Locust Fork, Alabama, about 45 minutes outside Birmingham, said in a Facebook post that her husband, Ribvar Karimi, was detained by ICE on Sunday morning.

She said Monday that they “are devastated, confused and overwhelmed” and that she’s “trying to do everything I can to get him home.”

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ICE agents reportedly told Gardner that her husband was arrested because they did not file for an adjustment of status. The couple was unaware that further action was required after the K1 visa was approved, notably as they were married within the designated 90-day window required by law.

Big oops! I hope things work out for them, but I don’t buy into their excuses. Without filing the I-485 (Adjustment of Status), he was also ineligible to work or get a driver’s license. And they noticed nothing was amiss?

After being admitted to the United States as a K-1 nonimmigrant and marrying the U.S. citizen petitioner—Gardner in this case—within 90 days, Karimi could have applied for lawful permanent resident status and gotten a green card, according to U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Man married to US citizen detained by ICE after delaying green-card process
“I feel like he was specifically targeted because of what’s going on where he’s from,” a woman said of her Iranian husband.

https://www.newsweek.com/iran-ice-detained-visa-immigration-2090079

Independent: US citizen caught in ICE raid says arrest was worth it if others got away

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A U.S. citizen who was violently arrested in a California ICE raid and detained for 24 hours said it was all worth it if an undocumented person was able to use that moment to flee.

Job Garcia, a 37-year-old PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, was arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood, ABC 7 reported.

Video captured an ICE agent telling Garcia, who is a U.S. citizen, “You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.”

Garcia recalled the horrifying moment he was placed into custody by the officer: “The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my neck, I thought like ‘Is this it for me?’”

Footage of the violent arrest, which came as ICE agents detained about 30 people at the store, quickly went viral.

Before he was detained, Garcia and several other shoppers were yelling at the officers as they targeted a man in a truck by smashing his window.

“A split second after that is when he lunged at me. I was still recording, so he pushes me, puts both hands on me, and I pushed his hand off. And then, he didn’t like that, so he grabbed my left hand,” Garcia said.

Garcia said the officers seemed surprised when he told them he was a U.S. citizen, but they still decided to arrest him. He was first taken to a holding area at Dodger Stadium, where he overheard agents discussing how many people they’d grabbed.

“Like, ‘How many bodies did you guys get today?’ And one of them said 31, and they started like, ‘Yay! It was a good day today.’ And they were like, high-fiving each other,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he also overheard officers talking about potential charges they could slap him with.

“At first it was assault of a federal agent, but only later, the narrative started switching because the video was out,” Garcia said.

This underscores the importance of citizen videos — Record! Record! Record!

US citizen caught in ICE raid says arrest was worth it if others got away
Job Garcia was arrested during an ICE raid last Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/ice-arrest-usa-citizen-b2774799.html

Newsweek: Republicans kidnap Latina girlfriend in new democratic ad

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A pro-Democrat PAC has released an ad showing a fictional Republican lawmaker and masked men kidnapping an American citizen while on a date with her boyfriend.

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The latest ad, released on Wednesday, features a white man and a Latina woman on a date. Masked men grab the screaming woman as a Republican congressman tells her boyfriend that “she’s coming with us.” He says that they’re taking her to a prison in El Salvador.

When the man protests that “she was born here, she’s a citizen,” the lawmaker replies, “I don’t care, she looks like one of them.” The ad closes with a quote from President Donald Trump, which reads: “The homegrowns are next.”

The quote was from a conversation Trump had with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in April about the possibility of jailing U.S. citizens.

Republicans kidnap Latina girlfriend in new democratic ad
The ad, inspired by reports of ICE detentions, depicted a Republican congressman arresting an American citizen.

https://www.newsweek.com/democrat-ad-republican-kidnaps-girlfriend-ice-2087974

The Hill: Pregnant US citizen detained by Border Patrol agents: ‘We didn’t do anything wrong’

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A pregnant U.S. citizen who was detained by federal agents approximately two weeks ago has since given birth to a healthy baby girl, but her boyfriend is now being held out of state and her problems are far from over.  

Cary López Alvarado told Nexstar’s KTLA that she “tried to remain strong” during the scary ordeal, which took place outside a building where her boyfriend and cousin were doing maintenance work on June 8. She was nine months pregnant at the time.

Video taken by López depicts her struggling with a masked agent wearing a Border Patrol uniform asking to see her identification as she was protecting a truck carrying her boyfriend Brayan Nájera and cousin Alberto Sandoval — the latter of whom is also a U.S. citizen.  

All three of them were eventually detained. Further footage posted on social media shows agents detaining López after they had pinned her truck between a wall.

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The then-soon-to-be-mother was taken to a processing facility in San Pedro, where, according to her, the agents automatically assumed she was undocumented.  

“[They said] ‘But you’re from Mexico, right?’ And I’m like ‘No, I’m from here,’” López said. “[They asked] … ‘Where’s here?’ and I’m like, ‘Here, the U.S., Los Angeles.”

“They put us in chains, so I had a chain from my hands under my belly that went all the way to my legs,” she added. “Every now and then, I would fix my hands because I felt like I would be putting too much pressure because the chain went under my belly.” 

López was released after complaining of stomach pain and went straight to a hospital where she started having contractions, which she believes were caused by the stress of what she had gone through. 

Pregnant US citizen detained by Border Patrol agents: ‘We didn’t do anything wrong’

https://thehill.com/latino/5359169-pregnant-us-citizen-border-patrol-agents

Daily Beast: ICE Pushes to Deport Reporter Arrested at ‘No Kings’ Rally

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Attorneys for Mario Guevara, a reporter who live-streamed his own arrest Saturday, say he was detained simply for covering the protest.

An Emmy Award-winning reporter who recorded his own arrest while covering a “No Kings” protest in metro Atlanta now faces possible deportation.

Mario Guevara, a Spanish-language journalist known for his coverage of immigration raids, was live-streaming the anti-Trump rally Saturday when tensions between officers in riot gear and marchers escalated, Fox 5 reported.

Wearing a helmet and a press-labeled vest, Guevara was filming a group of officers in a parking lot when they began moving towards him. Despite identifying himself as a journalist, he was arrested.

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Guevara’s attorneys have condemned the arrest—arguing he was detained simply for documenting the protest, according to Fox 5.

On Monday, attorneys successfully petitioned for bond, only to learn that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had lodged a “detainer” against Guevara, blocking his release for 48 hours so ICE officers can take him into custody.

The detainer means the federal government believes Guevara, who is originally from El Salvador, can be deported. Attorney Giovanni Diaz said that while Guevara lacks permanent legal status, he has work authorization and is pursuing a green card through his U.S. citizen son.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-pushes-to-deport-atlanta-based-reporter-mario-guevara-arrested-at-no-kings-rally

Newsweek: Texas man with two US citizen children detained by ICE

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A Texas man with two children who are United States citizens was apprehended by federal immigration agents following a traffic stop that turned into a life-altering encounter for his family.

Pablo Jose Morales Petzey, 32, from Guatemala, was detained on June 6 after local police pulled him and his wife over on Highway 6 while they were on their way to a landscaping job. The officer cited a missing license plate, which the family said had fallen off the vehicle unknowingly. The officer called federal authorities after discovering Morales’s immigration status.

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Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, told Newsweek the arrest has left their family broken, and their two children, 4-year-old Victoria and 3-year-old son Angel, are struggling to cope with the sudden absence of their father.

“My son Angel has autism and struggles to talk. The only words he says are ‘papa’ and ‘mama,’ and now he just looks out the window to see when his dad will return,” Rodriguez said.

“My daughter cries when she thinks of him in the truck when the police told him to get off, and she started to scream, ‘Why are they taking my dad? Why is he all chained up?’ I just told her everything will be OK with a knot in my throat with nothing else to say.”

One more family cruelly separated!

Texas man with two US citizen children detained by ICE
“They took him with handcuffs and a chain,” his wife, Laura Rodriguez, told Newsweek.

https://www.newsweek.com/texas-man-us-citzen-children-detained-ice-2086161