Even after his mother brought his birth certificate in court, twenty-year-old Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was held in a Florida jail.

On Wednesday, a US-born person was arrested in Florida and charged with illegally entering the state as a “unauthorised alien.” Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was detained for one day at the request of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, despite his mother submitting his birth certificate and Social Security card during a court hearing.

During a court hearing on Thursday, Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans examined the birth certificate, certified it was “an authentic document,” and concluded there was no probable cause for the case, according to the Florida Phoenix. “This court does not have authority other than what I’ve already done,” Riggans remarked.

“I wanted to tell them, ‘Where will you take him?” He’s from here.” Lopez-Gomez’s mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, told the publication following the court. “I felt immense helplessness because I couldn’t do anything, and I am desperate to get my son out of there.”

“It hurts so much,” she exclaimed through tears.

Lopez-Gomez was reportedly released Thursday evening after protesters gathered outside the Leon County jail where he was detained.

Lopez-Gomez was accused under a recently enacted state statute making unauthorised entry into the state a state felony. The Florida Immigrant Coalition sued state officials earlier this month, arguing that the bill contradicts the federal government’s power to regulate immigration law. On April 4, a federal judge temporarily stopped the measure. State prosecutor Kimberly Thompson did not respond to a request for comment on the reason for Lopez-Gomez’s detention.


On Thursday, the Homeland Security Investigations Office in Tampa issued Lopez-Gomez an ICE detainer for 48 hours. ICE did not respond to an email asking why a US citizen was detained.

“This is what oppressive and poorly written state laws in Florida lead to,” Thomas Kennedy, a policy analyst at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, wrote on social media Thursday.

Lopez-Gomez was born in Georgia but spent the majority of his life in Mexico until moving back to Georgia four years ago, according to his mother. He was previously caught in Georgia on Sunday and charged with driving under the influence, but he was released after his family provided his birth certificate and Social Security card, his mother explained.

Lopez-Gomez was a passenger in a car hailed over by a state policeman on Wednesday, who accused the driver of speeding at 78 mph in a 65-mph zone. In the arrest report, the trooper stated that Lopez-Gomez claimed to be in the country illegally.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump told reporters that he is “all for” sending American individuals to a notorious prison in El Salvador. Last month, the Trump administration moved hundreds of immigrants from the United States to the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), in breach of a court order. The administration has already disobeyed a court decision to allow the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who had legal safeguards against deportation to El Salvador but was deported due to what the administration described as an administrative error.