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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....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.
In my family, those that have been stopped by ICE were able to show their legal papers because they were born in another country. I cant imagine ICE stopping me and asking for papers. What will I present? I dont carry my birth certificate.
One of hundreds? There are a few other cases in this article about other Americans that have been deported. They were racially profiled because of mental health, accents, looks etc.
This is completely unacceptable.
Oh wait, I get it, if Hispanics didnt make up the majority of illegal immigrants then they would not be racially profiled, right?
Or the other one, "So what?" maybe encarcerated they would stop having babies and then out grow the other ethnicities in numbers...xenophobia!
In my family, those that have been stopped by ICE were able to show their legal papers because they were born in another country. I cant imagine ICE stopping me and asking for papers. What will I present? I dont carry my birth certificate.
One of hundreds? There are a few other cases in this article about other Americans that have been deported. They were racially profiled because of mental health, accents, looks etc.
This is completely unacceptable.
Oh wait, I get it, if Hispanics didnt make up the majority of illegal immigrants then they would not be racially profiled, right?
Or the other one, "So what?" maybe encarcerated they would stop having babies and then out grow the other ethnicities in numbers...xenophobia!
That is correct; unfortunately Hispanics are racially profiled by ICE because they do constitute the overwhelming majority of illegal immigrants in this country.
However, ICE was wrong to appeal this man's case. He showed more than sufficient evidence that he is a US citizen and you should not have to carry your birth certificate with you to prove that you are a citizen, it is ridiculous.
In my family, those that have been stopped by ICE were able to show their legal papers because they were born in another country. I cant imagine ICE stopping me and asking for papers. What will I present? I dont carry my birth certificate.
One of hundreds? There are a few other cases in this article about other Americans that have been deported. They were racially profiled because of mental health, accents, looks etc.
This is completely unacceptable.
Oh wait, I get it, if Hispanics didnt make up the majority of illegal immigrants then they would not be racially profiled, right?
Or the other one, "So what?" maybe encarcerated they would stop having babies and then out grow the other ethnicities in numbers...xenophobia!
In my family, those that have been stopped by ICE were able to show their legal papers because they were born in another country. I cant imagine ICE stopping me and asking for papers. What will I present? I dont carry my birth certificate.
One of hundreds? There are a few other cases in this article about other Americans that have been deported. They were racially profiled because of mental health, accents, looks etc.
This is completely unacceptable.
Oh wait, I get it, if Hispanics didnt make up the majority of illegal immigrants then they would not be racially profiled, right?
Or the other one, "So what?" maybe encarcerated they would stop having babies and then out grow the other ethnicities in numbers...xenophobia!
It's an unfortunate situation. However, God only knows how many innocent U.S. citizens are serving time in prison; some have even been executed for crimes they did not commit. It simply illustrates that no system is infallible.
Prior to the illegal alien invasion, I doubt this was a problem. Moreover, had this man not been incarcerated for purchasing stolen property, he most likely would not have encountered ICE.
Before his birth, Veloz's U.S.-born father was sent to Vietnam, so his pregnant mother stayed with relatives in Mexico and Veloz was born there. Months later, the family returned to the United States and has lived here since.
Veloz was automatically a citizen at birth, though his parents never obtained his certificate of citizenship.
In 2006, Veloz was convicted of receiving stolen property after purchasing a car that had been stolen. He served eight months and was about to be released from prison when he was turned over to ICE.
"I said, 'I'm a U.S. citizen, why am I being put through deportation?' " he recalled.
At the ICE prison in Arizona, the paperwork stated that he had entered the country illegally and that his father was a Mexican citizen.
If his parents had gone to the trouble of obtaining the certificate of citizenship, then he would have been able to prove he was a US citizen. The problem is not that he wasn't carrying his birth certificate around with him, the problem appears to be that there was no proof of his citizenship due to his parents failure to get the paperwork in order when they brought him to the US. But of course it is easier to blame the 'racist' ICE agents for profiling him. Furthermore, if he hadn't been in jail for receiving stolen goods in the first place, he may never have come to ICE's attention. After all, it is not like he was walking down the street when ICE agents grabbed him, threw him in jail and made him prove he was a citizen.
From the article, how could he be born in Mexico and an automatic US citizen? Doesn't Mexico have their own 14th? I guess they don't. It's time we modify ours.
If I was a US citizen and appeared Hispanic I'd be hopping mad about illegal immigration from mostly our Southern border causing this...
Oh wait, I am........and I am......
HOW IN THE HELL DO YOU OR CAN U APPEAR TO LOOK OR BE latino/HISPANIC
do away with that b.s label already
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