30-year-old Pedro Guzman was deported to Mexico in May after he was arrested and jailed on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. Nothing surprising there except for one thing. Pedro is a U.S. citizen.

Guzman, who is mentally disabled, was missing for nearly three months as his family looked for him in the shelters, jails and morgues of towns in Tijuana and neighboring cities. During that time, he rummaged for food in garbage cans, washed himself in rivers and walked as far south as Ensenada — more than 60 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the lawsuit.
Guzman tried to return to the United States several times but was turned away. He was found near the Calexico border crossing in August and reunited with his family.

Of course Immigration and Customs enforcement is saying this a one-off case and anyway, Guzman said that he was undocumented.

Can we say racial profiling? There were no attempts to verify Guzman’s status before packing him off to Mexico? What’s another brown person among millions deported anyway?

My family, U.S. citizens by birth in Puerto Rico, have had their apartment raided and were threatened with deportation so this is not out of the realm of possibility and begs the question, to how many more people has this happened to or nearly happened to as the anti-immigrant, read anti-Latino rhetoric gets stepped up.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Via / Mercury News.com