ICE nightmare has rare happy ending as U.S. citizen with birth certificate saved from deportation

If you’re of Hispanic origin, you need to be careful. Trump’s ICE goons are on a hair trigger, scooping up anyone they like, sending them to detention facilities, and threatening them with deportation. Get on the wrong side of a uniformed thug and you could end up with a one-way ticket to El Salvador’s nightmare prison, from which nobody ever leaves.

Some might scoff at this. After all, if you were born in the United States, are a confirmed citizen and have the documents to prove it why worry? Well, that’s probably what Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez thought too. On Wednesday, he was detained by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper, charged with illegally entering Florida as an “unauthorized alien”, dragged to a cell, and ICE were summoned to disappear him.

Now, this is all some kind of horrible mistake right? Just show the right papers and they’ll let you go? Well, Lopez-Gomez’ mother traveled the courthouse, showed the judge his birth certificate and social security card confirming he’s a U.S. citizen. The judge acknowledged the documents were legitimate and that Lopez-Gomez is American, but said that “because he had an ICE hold” there was no power to release him.

🚨A U.S. born citizen was arrested in Florida for entering the state as an “unauthorized alien.” His mother and a community advocate showed his birth certificate during a hearing in Leon County. The judge said she had no authority to release him. pic.twitter.com/lwQQMQuUVR

— Jackie Llanos (@LlanosJackie) April 17, 2025

Protests immediately began to get him freed. In a telling move, the comments were quickly infested by quisling MAGAs saying that, actually, he deserved to be detained. Others insinuated Lopez-Gomez being a U.S. citizen born in this country didn’t matter as “Where were his parents born at homie? and that “being born from the birth canal of an illegal mom makes you an illegal baby.”

Here’s what you should take away from this: MAGAs absolutely do not care if you have a legal right to be in the country, if you were born here, or heck, even if you voted for Trump. They care about the color of your skin and your name, and they want to humiliate you, ruin your life, and remove you from the country. Frankly, if you’re an American citizen that’s a bonus for them, as the extra cruelty gets them off.

Thomas Kennedy of the Immigration Coalition was dumbstruck:

He was charged under SB 4C, “unauthorized alien entry into Florida without inspection”, despite being a U.S. citizen under a law that we blocked due to our lawsuit against the state! All of it is insane. pic.twitter.com/63TQZxlsIi

— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) April 18, 2025

After much protest and raising the story in the media, Lopez-Gomez was released into the arms of his weeping mother.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez has been released. This is the moment he reunited with his mom. pic.twitter.com/4ODBw8cGDm

— Jackie Llanos (@LlanosJackie) April 17, 2025

This is a happy ending, but a rare one. With Trump’s approval, U.S. citizens up and down the country are being detained for the “crime” of being Hispanic. Lopez-Gomez got lucky in that his family and friends quickly raised awareness of his story on social media and quickly had lawyers involved who knew where to put pressure on authorites.

But you? You might not be so lucky if an ICE agent is having a bad day and decides to take it out on you. Maybe one day you’ll just be scooped up, disappeared, and that’s the last anyone will ever hear of you.