A U.S.-born American citizen being held at the request of immigration officials in Florida has been released amid worry by his mother and advocates that the state's anti-immigrant fervor could lead to the same happening to other Americans.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, had been held about 24 hours after he was arrested Wednesday by Florida authorities under a state immigration law a judge temporarily blocked. On Friday, the judge denied a state request to lift the block on the law, according to Thomas Kennedy, a spokesman for Florida Immigration Coalition, an advocacy group. The law allows Florida authorities to arrest people who have entered the state and are suspected to have come to the country illegally.
Lopez-Gomez was in a vehicle with others who had traveled from Georgia and was heading to a job in Florida.
“I feel fine leaving that place, I felt bad in there. They didn’t give us anything to eat all day yesterday,” Lopez-Gomez said in Spanish, according to the Florida Phoenix, which first reported his arrest and release. Lopez-Gomez told the news site that he had told the trooper who arrested him he was a U.S. citizen.
Kennedy told NBC News he was with Lopez-Gomez’s mother at a protest Thursday evening outside the Leon County Jail where her son was being held when she got a call from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement informing her he was being released. Rather than release him where she was, ICE asked her to meet them at a nearby Wendy’s for the officer’s safety, he said.
“I am happy for the family and grateful for them to be united,” Kennedy said. “This man was wronged. There need to be damages.”
Lopez-Gomez's mother told Florida Phoenix she worries that her other children, also U.S. citizens, will now live in fear of deportation.
Lopez-Gomez was born in Georgia and therefore is an American citizen. A judge for Leon County, Florida, had determined that a birth certificate presented at a hearing Thursday was authentic but had said she did not have jurisdiction beyond finding no probable cause for the charge.
Lopez-Gomez continued to be detained on a request to hold him from ICE.
ICE's role is to enforce immigration laws that generally apply to noncitizens. American citizens are protected under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution from unreasonable search and seizure, arrest and detention.
NBC News has reached out to federal and state authorities for comment.
Mutaqee Akbar, a Tallahassee attorney representing Lopez-Gomez, said he had spoken to him on Friday morning and Lopez-Gomez was "pretty shaken up" by the arrest and detention.
Akbar said the arrest and holding of Lopez-Gomez "is indicative of just the overaggression when it comes down to that law."
"I think it's indicative of the troopers not even willing to see the proof that was right in front of them. Mr. Lopez-Gomez had a Social Security card and he also had Georgia ID and he presented them both and they were ignored," he said.
Akbar said the criminal case involving the charge of Lopez-Gomez entering Florida as an "illegal alien" is still open so the next step is to get that dismissed. Lopez-Gomez may also pursue a civil liability claim against the state for wrongful arrest, Akbar said.
Documents filed in court and provided to NBC News by Akbar show the Homeland Security Investigations office in Tampa sent Leon County Sheriff's Office a detainer for Lopez-Gomez. The document states that the detainer request is based on biometric evidence and statements made by Lopez-Gomez.
The trooper who made the arrest states in the documents that a passenger in the vehicle gave him a Georgia ID card. Georgia does not allow undocumented immigrants to apply for ID cards.
Later in the document, the trooper stated Lopez-Gomez and another passenger said "yes" when he was asked if they were "here illegally" and that those arrested did not present legal residency proof for any state. The trooper stated he confirmed with ICE that Lopez-Gomez had entered Florida and the U.S. illegally.
Kennedy blamed the barrage of immigration enforcement laws enacted in Florida since Gov. Ron DeSantis has been in office, including mandating that local law enforcement enter what are known as 287(g) agreements to assist federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws.
Kennedy and others also believe racial profiling was involved.
"Since DeSantis has become governor, we have had an anti-immigrant law passed every year. ... It creates a persecutory environment where the whole state becomes a 'show me your papers' modus operandi and you have," Kennedy said, "laws that contradict the constitutional rights of Americans."
"The judge made a judgment call to deny the constitutional rights of this U.S.-born citizen (and) give ICE jurisdiction over someone they should have no jurisdiction over," Kennedy said. "That's a problem."
