The demand for answers about the wrongful jailing of U.S. citizens by federal immigration officials continues to escalate, with more than two dozen House Democrats calling the nearly month-long detention of a U.S.-born Latino a “clear abuse of power” in a letter to acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner Mark Morgan.
“It has long been a concern that our fellow citizens may be targeted by checkpoint personnel, and the facts and circumstances regarding the detention of Francisco Erwin Galicia have substantiated these fears,” the legislators, including six Texas legislators but zero Republicans, write. “Mr. Galicia, his attorney, and his mother presented documents early and argued often about his situation. Throughout this their cries were ignored, denied, and discounted until this matter became a part of the national news cycle, and was brought to the attention of members of Congress.”
And it was not until Francisco’s case got media attention—and drew public outrage—that federal immigration officials finally released him from custody. The 18-year-old said he got “not one apology” from his jailers: “Nothing.” During his time in custody, those same officials tried to emotionally torment him into agreeing to be deported, and he even considered it at one point: “We couldn't bathe or brush our teeth, nothing,” he said. “You didn't have anything. The only thing that they would give us from time to time, to clean ourselves were wipes.”
Francisco plans to sue both Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but this isn’t the first time, or 1,500th time, that immigration officials have jailed U.S. citizens. In their letter, the legislators ask Morgan to clarify the steps agents take to verify documentation. “It is critical that CBP answer our questions,” said Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Joaquin Castro, “and conduct a thorough review of the agency policies that allow U.S. citizens to be detained for weeks without any recourse.”
Late last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on the Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog to open an investigation into both CBP and ICE over the detention of U.S. citizens, including 9-year-old Julia Isabel Amparo Medina: “The detentions of Mr. Galicia and Ms. Medina represent a nightmare scenario in which U.S. citizens were stopped at the border or in the country, presented proof of their citizenship, were accused of no other crime, and were still held by ICE without recourse for hours or days at a time.”