The son of a decorated Vietnam veteran, Hector Veloz is a U.S. citizen, but in 2007 immigration officials mistook him for an illegal immigrant and locked him in an Arizona prison for 13 months.
Veloz had to prove his citizenship from behind bars. An aunt helped him track down his father’s birth certificate and his own, his parents’ marriage certificate, his father’s school, military and Social Security records.
After nine months, a judge determined that he was a citizen, but immigration authorities appealed the decision. He was detained for five more months before he found legal help and a judge ordered his case dropped.
“It was a nightmare,” said Veloz, 37, a Los Angeles air conditioning installer.
Veloz is one of hundreds of U.S. citizens who have landed in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and struggled to prove they don’t belong there, according to advocacy groups and legal scholars, who have tracked such cases around the country. Some citizens have been deported.
By law, immigration authorities have jurisdiction only over noncitizens. Citizens, whether native-born or naturalized, cannot be deported. (source)
Guilty until you’re able – from behind prison bars – to prove your own innocence. Yes, the Land of the Free… More on illegal immigration. And some statistics. And here are other absurd human rights violations.
This should not be a big surprise in a land that, with only 5% of the world’s population, boasts 25% of the world’s incarcerated population… a very profitable undertaking for jailers (though costly for the hapless citizenry) it should be noted, which of course is perfectly in line with the for-profit value system the United States is known for. Freedom? Methinks the ancient maxim still holds true: you can tell a tree by its fruit.