A U.S. citizen arrested an hour from San Antonio has been deported to Mexico even though he repeatedly told federal agents he had proof of citizenship at home and offered to show them the documents, according to a report from Univision national correspondent Lidia Terrazas.
Customs and Border Patrol agents threatened Denver-born Brian Morales, 25, with deportation or prison time after pulling him over in a traffic stop near the Hill Country town of Fredericksburg, Terrazas said in a video posted to Instagram.
Although Morales was born in the U.S., his parents took him to Mexico as a toddler, and he isn’t fluent in English, Terrazas said. He returned the U.S. as an adult, according to her reporting, but crossed the border legally by showing his birth certificate. He was in the process of getting a Real ID, Terrazas added.
Morales alleges three separate CBP agents said they didn’t believe him when he told them he had a birth certificate, Social Security card and other ways of proving his citizenship. The officers threatened him with a fraud charge and five years’ imprisonment if he didn’t sign a voluntary departure order, he also maintains.
In comments to British publication The Independent, a DHS spokesperson accused Morales — whom the agency identified using a different spelling of his first name — of lying about his status.
“CBP did NOT arrest a U.S. citizen. On April 3, U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Rocksprings, Texas Station interviewed Bryan Jose Morales-Garcia after he was encountered by Gillespie County Sheriff’s deputies near Fredericksburg,” the DHS official said. “Agents determined Morales-Garcia was illegally in the U.S. through record checks. Morales-Garcia also admitted he is a Mexican national and he entered the country illegally. He was subsequently removed to Mexico on April 7.”
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, told Univision in a video interview, that Morales’ arrest is the result of years of anti-immigrant rhetoric from politicians.
“ICE is often ignoring people when they say, ‘Hey, I am a U.S. citizen here’s the proof,'” Castro said. “It’s because they want people gone. And, look, it’s a kind of racial profiling, and they’re not just targeting undocumented Latinos, they’re often targeting any Latino — and some U.S. citizens are going to be caught up in that.”
President Donald Trump, working in conjunction with advisor Stephen Miller, is working to engineer the largest deportation operation in American history, and the Republican-controlled Congress provided $170 billion last year to triple ICE’s budget.
However, the effects of that deportation sweep have brought chaos to the streets of cities including Minneapolis, Chicago and Los Angeles and led to the deaths of at least three U.S. citizens at the hands of officers.
Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of immigrant-advocacy group America’s Voice, said Morales’ arrest and deportation is another example of the Trump administration’s disregard for fundamental rights as it continues its anti-immigrant agenda.
“The continued examples of U.S. citizens being detained and deported are a built-in feature of the Trump and Miller mass deportation crusade and the culture that prioritizes speed and quotas instead of accuracy, accountability or dignity,” Cárdenas said in an email to the Current. “Brian Morales needs to be returned to the U.S. immediately and all of us need to demand an end to the out-of-control mass deportation machinery. Our constitutional rights are under siege.”
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