The powerful and feared Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is also wrong and lashes out at the Americans themselves. Such is the case with Julio César Ovalle, who was walking the streets of Texas on the morning of July 11, 2018, when he was suddenly arrested by an agent popularly called ‘Migra’.
Julio, who had difficulty speaking English due to a mild disability, showed the officer an ID showing that he was a US citizen, which was not enough for the officer, who took his cell phone from him and took him to the detention center. of the US Service. Migration and Customs Control (ICE), in Cotulla, Texas.
Ovalle was born in California in 1994, but later moved to Texas with her parents. Despite having all the documents proving his identity and citizenship, the CBP agent immediately began the deportation process in Julio, without showing him a lawyer or a judge. This is despite the fact that it was only a year later that ICE formally requested by means of a memorandum that accelerated deportations be carried out in certain cases.
According to documents of the case, on which MILLENNIUM access, the officer was convinced that Julio was lying and asked questions such as, “Where did you cross?” and “where are you from?” as the California-born young man insisted that he was a citizen and could even show him his passport. But all he got was laughter. The officer did not even allow him to call his father so he could help him.
Julio spent the night alone at the station and the next day was transferred to Laredo, Texas. His parents had no idea where their son was. They were less likely to think that the authorities of their own country would send him to another country.
In Laredo, Julio had to sign a series of documents that he did not understand but in which he accepted his deportation because he was a migrant without legal residence documents. He was subsequently deported along with other migrants Nuevo Laredo, TamaulipasAt that point, his cell phone was returned and Julio was finally able to talk to his father. It was the first time his parents had heard of him since he had been arrested the morning before.
Julio’s father told his son to wait for him at the immigration offices in Nuevo Laredo and started the ride from San Antonio, Texas, with Julio’s documents so that his son would return.
But during that time, already on the Mexican side, a truck driven by people claiming to be from a cartel kidnapped the young man, took him to a house and demanded a ransom for him. They even left recorded messages for Julio’s family saying they would kill him if they didn’t pay.
Then Julio’s father went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBIto demand that your child be saved. The agency discovered that the young man was indeed a US citizen and contacted Mexican authorities to rescue him, which was accomplished one day when his captors released him.
So it was thanks to the intervention of the FBI that Julio was able to return home … a week after he was arbitrarily detained.
The account of these events is in Ovalle’s lawsuit against CBP for what happened, which explains that Julio is suffering from emotional distress and stress due to this situation. It is detailed that even he attempted suicide, all because a border agent acted on the basis of discrimination, racial profiling and predatory policies, according to the lawsuit he had access to MILLENNIUM
He therefore asks the US government to indemnify him for damages and violations of his rights as well as for the costs he had to incur to have an adequate defense. His case was delayed due to complications from the Covid-19 pandemic and even had to be reopened after being dismissed by the Ovalle defense for procedural errors.
ledz