The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detained a Marine veteran with PTSD for three days on suspicion that he was undocumented, according to NBC. In fact, Jilmar Ramos-Gomez, 27, was born in the U.S., and currently lives in Grand Rapids, MI, according to the ACLU.
Ramos-Gomez was released from a detention facility on December 17 after his personal records were provided to ICE.
When asked for comment, ICE said that it couldn’t respond to the request thanks to the government shutdown.
ICE has a lengthy history of arresting and detaining U.S. citizens and legal residents on spurious grounds. A Los Angeles Times report last April estimated that the agency had mistakenly arrested at least 1,480 U.S. citizens since 2012.
Ramos-Gomez was originally arrested in Grand Rapids for allegedly trespassing and damaging a fire alarm in a hospital. He pleaded guilty, and was supposed to be released on December 14. Instead, ICE requested that he be held so they could detain him, for unknown reasons. He was then driven 70 miles to an immigration detention facility in Battle Creek, MI, before he was released after three days when lawyer Richard Kessler contacted ICE with his records.
“Once he was released from our custody, he was under the domain of ICE. Where they take him is their process,” Kent County Undersheriff Chuck DeWitt told NBC. “Our procedures were followed.”
Ramos-Gomez won awards for service in Afghanistan. The ACLU told NBC that his original arrest was related to his PTSD. He’s currently receiving mental health treatment.
The ACLU has asked Kent County to investigate why the sheriff’s department released Ramos-Gomez to ICE.