Yesterday CNN news writer Tom Watts put together a great story revealing once again the inanity of deportation laws and the illegal actions they precipitate.
According to the article, Eduardo Caraballo's mother was not allowed to bail him out of a Chicago jail for a stolen car charge because of an ICE hold. But Mr. Caraballo was born in Puerto Rico, and is legally a U.S. citizen by birth, and therefore protected by law and the Fourteenth Amendment from the handcuffs of ICE.
According to the CIA World Factbook, Puerto Ricans were "granted U.S. citizenship in 1917."
ICE has no authority over anyone who is a U.S. citizen by birth, including those born in Puerto Rico. It can only justify arresting someone who makes a claim of having this status if it has proof that the person is lying, and, in this case is from Mexico. Absent such proof, and therefore legal authority, the ICE and jail officials responsible for this are violating not only Mr. Caraballo's civil rights but are also committing serious crimes of kidnapping and false imprisonment.
Further evidence that this is happening around the country, mostly through the Criminal Alien Program, recently came my way in ICE's reply to a FOIA request I submitted in March.
In just the last few months ICE HQ provided guidance to ICE attorneys concerning about 1500 people issued ICE detainers who asserted they were U.S. citizens.
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