An American citizen was held in a Florida jail at the request of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) despite the county judge being able to see a U.S. birth certificate in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, who was born in the United States, was detained Wednesday in Florida by the state\u2019s highway patrol and was charged with illegally entering the Sunshine State as an \u201cunauthorized alien\u201d under a state law that has been temporarily blocked<\/u><\/a> by a judge, the Florida Phoenix news outlet reported<\/u><\/a> Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans said Thursday that despite the charge against Lopez-Gomez being dropped, she did not have the authority to release the 20-year-old because ICE asked Leon County Jail to hold Lopez-Gomez. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The judge inspected Lopez-Gomez\u2019s birth certificate, which had been waived earlier in court by a supporter, saying \u201cIn looking at it, and feeling it, and holding it up to the light, the court can clearly see the watermark to show that this is indeed an authentic document,\u201d according to Florida Phoenix. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lopez-Gomez was heading from Georgia and was pulled over in Florida by a Highway Patrol trooper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R) signed a sweeping immigration law<\/u><\/a> that made it a state crime for undocumented immigrants over the age of 18 to \u201cknowingly enter or attempt to enter\u201d Florida by \u201celuding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hill has reached out to ICE for comment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gomez-Lopez was born in Georgia. His first language is Tzotzil, Florida Phoenix reported. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His mother cried after seeing her son appear for a virtual hearing in court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wanted to tell them, \u2018Where are you going to take him? He is from here,\u2019\u201d she told the outlet. \u201cI felt immense helplessness because I couldn\u2019t do anything, and I am desperate to get my son out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protests took place in front of the Leon County jail where the 20-year-old was held. He was released and reunited with his mother Thursday evening, Florida Phoenix reported<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s like this bureaucratic, dystopian nightmare of poorly written laws,\u201d Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson at the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who attended the Thursday hearing, told<\/u><\/a> NBC News. \u201cWe are living in a time when this man could get sent to El Salvador because, what, is he going to be treated like a stateless person?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida legal fellow Amy Godshall told<\/u><\/a> The Independent that Lopez-Gomez\u2019s detention was \u201cbased on a patently false allegation that he entered the state while undocumented,\u201d adding that \u201call this despite his mother appearing in court with his Social Security card and his birth certificate showing his place of birth as the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n