Even those that became citizens under POTUS Reagan’s amnesty bill are subject to detention – PB/TK
A U.S. citizen says her rights were violated after she was detained by immigration authorities in San Bernardino – By Paloma Esquivel and James Queally / May 26 2017
Guadalupe Plascencia said she was alarmed when a San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputy asked her to sign papers related to her immigration status.
The 59-year-old hairdresser from San Bernardino had spent the night of March 29 in jail because of a decade-old bench warrant related to her alleged failure to appear as a witness in a court case. During her night in jail, Plascencia said a deputy asked her to sign documents acknowledging that officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had inquired about her.
“Why?” Plascencia asked. “I’m an American citizen.”
Confused and scared, Plascencia did as she was asked, assuring herself that the entire ordeal was a mistake that would soon be cleared up.
But as she tried to leave the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, Plascencia said she was met by immigration enforcement agents, handcuffed and placed in the back of a van. Plascencia would spend the rest of the day in ICE custody, fearful that she would be deported despite becoming an American citizen some 20 years ago, following an amnesty program initiated by President Ronald Reagan.
“I felt helpless, like I was no one,” she said in a recent interview. “Here, they talk about rights … in that moment, I realized, we don’t have rights.”
Continue to latimes.com article: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-aclu-ice-plascencia-20170524-story.html
