ICE Trys To Deport U.S. Citizen

Americans of Hispanic heritage have been afraid that Republicans trying to whip up fears about immigration and border security would result in a backlash against Hispanic citizens. It looks like they were right.

Just months ago, ICE deported an American citizen who was developmentally disabled because he was Hispanic. It took his family three months to find him and get him back to the United States. His family says he's not the same friendly and carefree person he used to be, and they worry he'll be scarred for life by the experience.

It almost happened again this week -- this time in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. Alicia Rodriguez (pictured above) is an accountant with three children. She was born and grew up in the metroplex, and doesn't even speak Spanish. No reason she should be worried about ICE agents -- right? Wrong!

She's Hispanic and has the same name as an undocumented immigrant who has been deported three times. She was arrested in Arlington a few days ago for an unpaid ticket. She and her family figured she could pay the ticket and be on her way, but it didn't work out that way.

The police computer is tied in to computers from Homeland Security, and they flagged her as an illegal alien because of her name and birthdate. Neither the police nor ICE agents (who spoke with her on the phone) would believe she was an American citizen. They wouldn't believe her sister either, who had even brought them her birth certificate.

Ms. Rodriguez spent a couple of days in jail, waiting to be deported, before a police officer realized that something might be wrong since she had a driver's license and a social security number. They finally released her and apologized.

Now some of you may be saying that it was an honest mistake. You would be wrong. This should not have happened at all. The only reason it happened is because of either incompetence or racism. Most of the police had decided she was illegal, and didn't bother to adequately do their jobs.

This could have easily been avoided if they had just checked her fingerprints against the known prints of the woman they had her confused with. But they didn't -- they already had their minds made up and didn't want to be confused with facts. After all, she was Hispanic.

Ms. Rodriguez said she's unhappy, but she's not going to try to sue. She's a lot nicer than me. If it was me, I'd be looking for the greediest lawyer I could find.