The powerful and dreaded Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is also wrong and charged against the Americans themselves. Such is the case of 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 of the colloquially known as ‘Migra’.
Julio, who had trouble speaking English due to a slight disability, showed the agent an ID certifying that he was a U.S. citizen, which was not enough for the officer, who took out his cell. and took him prisoner to the Detention Center of the Migration and Customs Control Service (ICE), in Cotulla, Texas.
Ovalle was born in 1994 in California, but later moved with his parents to Texas. Despite having all the documents proving his identity and citizenship, the CBP agent began the deportation process in July immediately, without letting him see a lawyer or a judge. This, although it was up to a year after ICE formally requested through a memorandum that expedited deportations could be carried out in certain cases.
According to case documents, to which MILLENNIUM had access, the agent was convinced that Julio was lying and insisting on questions like, “Where did you cross?” and “where are you from?”, while the California-born young man insisted he was a citizen and could even show him his passport. But all he got was laughter. The agent did not even allow him to make a call to his father, so that he could help him.
July spent the night alone at the station and the other day was transferred to Laredo, Texas. His parents had no idea where his son was. Less did they imagine that the authorities in their own country were about to set up another country.
In Laredo, Julio was made to sign a series of documents that he did not understand, but in which he accepted his deportation for being a migrant without legal residence documents. He was then deported along with other migrants to Nou Laredo, Tamaulipas. It was then that they returned his cell phone to him and Julio was finally able to talk to his father. It was the first time his parents had heard of him since he was arrested the morning before.
The July father told his son to wait for him at the immigration offices in Nuevo Laredo and began the on-site trip from San Antonio, Texas, with the July documents, for his son to return.
But in that lapse, already on the Mexican side, a van driven by people who claimed 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 July’s family in which they said they would kill him if they didn’t pay.
Then the father of July went to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI, For the acronym in English) to demand that his son be rescued. The agency found that, indeed, the young man was a US citizen and contacted Mexican authorities to rescue him, which was achieved until the other day, when his captors released him.
So it was thanks to the FBI intervening that Julio was able to return to his home … a week after he was arbitrarily arrested.
The account of these events is in the lawsuit that Ovalle filed against CBP for what has happened, in which it is explained that due to this situation July suffers from emotional problems and stress. It is detailed that even he attempted suicide, and all because a border agent acted based discrimination, on a racial profile and predatory policies, according to the lawsuit, to which he had access MILLENNIUM.
That is why he is asking the US government to compensate him, both for the damage and violations of his rights, and for the expenses he had to incur to have a proper defense. His case was delayed due to complications from the covid-19 pandemic and even had to be reopened, after he was dismissed for procedural errors by Ovalle’s defense.
ledz