Immigration officials have ignored a US-born citizen's birth certificate and kept him detained for weeks

Federal immigration officials have kept a Texas-born U.S. citizen in custody for nearly a month, Dallas News reports, reportedly having refused to acknowledge the original birth certificate presented by his mother as proof of his citizenship. “I need my son back,” Sanjuana Galicia pleaded. “I just want to prove to them that he is a citizen. He’s not a criminal or anything bad. He’s a good kid.”

Eighteen-year-old Francisco Erwin Galicia was taken into custody last month while traveling through a Border Patrol checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, with his younger brother Marlon and a group of friends. Francisco told his mom “that he was detained because he didn’t have his U.S. passport. But she said he did present CBP with his Texas ID,” which Dallas News reports can only be obtained with a valid Social Security Number.

You’d think that Border Patrol officials presented with his documentation would take one look and immediately release the U.S. citizen they’ve unjustly detained, right? Nope: Sanjuana said she showed them “his original birth certificate and other documents and they ignored them.” Border Patrol then transferred Francisco to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, where the ICE detainee locator system “lists him as being born in Mexico.”

This is not the first time or the 1,500th time that ICE has wrongfully detained a U.S. citizen and threatened to deport them to a country that isn’t theirs. It was just a few months ago that ICE detained a U.S.-born military vet with combat-related trauma for three days. He was carrying his passport and REAL ID, but it didn’t make any difference—he was brown. Officials last year also threatened to deport a Pennsylvania-born man to Jamaica. He’s now suing the Florida police department that held him for ICE. And yes, U.S. citizens have been unjustly deported.

Sanjuana is now fighting to get her son released from ICE custody, and has “faxed over all the documents to the ICE agent handling the case.” It’s sadly too late for her other son, Marlon, who had also been detained. Lacking legal status, ”Marlon signed a voluntary deportation form” and was deported to Mexico. “I didn’t imagine this could happen,” he told Dallas News from Mexico, “and now I’m so sad that I’m not with my family.”

With the Trump administration expanding policy allowing ICE to quickly deport immigrants without a court hearing, how many more Franciscos will there be? Where are Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, and why aren’t they publicly advocating for their constituent, in a state where people of color are the majority and will now be at greater risk of detainment because of these policies? Francisco needs to be home—and that’s Texas. “He’s going on a full month of being wrongfully detained,” his mom said. “He’s a U.S. citizen and he needs to be released now.”