A California man who has lived in the U.S. for decades was detained by ICE for days after a rookie agent incorrectly filled out paperwork.
Nolan De Long had only been working as a federal immigration agent for a few weeks when he arrested 55-year-old Berkeley resident Carlos De La Garza after a routine appointment related to his green card application, The Washington Post reported.
Court records show De Long entered incorrect information on De La Garza’s I-213, a form the government uses to detain immigrants and begin deportation proceedings. In a sworn statement, De Long admitted that due to his “lack of experience,” he did not understand the form’s language and mistakenly believed De La Garza’s residency bid had been denied, even though it had not.
The ICE agent also wrongly wrote that De La Garza had admitted to illegally entering the country in 2015.
De Long was hired last summer as part of a frantic ICE recruitment push as the Trump administration sought to increase arrests of undocumented migrants.
According to the Post, recruits in that drive received less training than usual. De Long received just four hours of instruction on interviewing and completing an I-213, down from the typical 12.
The flawed form in De La Garza’s case was only the second I-213 De Long had ever completed on the job. The ICE agent said he relied on sample language from another case but failed to remove irrelevant details.
De La Garza spent several days in ICE custody in December before the Trump administration acknowledged the justification for his detention was based on false information.
A federal judge last week ruled that De La Garza’s detention was unlawful, though the administration is still attempting to deport him.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged the “paperwork error” but downplayed its significance, pointing to De La Garza’s criminal record.
“DHS will never confirm or deny attempts to dox our law enforcement officers. Doxxing our officers puts their lives and their families in serious danger,” a spokesperson told the Daily Beast.
“The form was corrected by the officer’s supervisor and delivered to his attorney. A clerical error should not stop us from being able to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens who threaten our communities.”
De La Garza’s record includes three misdemeanors from the 1990s, drug convictions that were later expunged, and a 2014 charge for assaulting a responding police officer during a mental health crisis.
His immigration attorney, Amalia Wille, said the 55-year-old has since followed the law and the correct procedure while applying for permanent residency.
“DHS illegally arrested him at his green card interview as part of this administration’s effort to instill fear in our community and disregard due process,” she told the Post.
