ICE disputes claims of illegal detention of Mexican man arrested in WNC

Sam DeGrave | The Citizen-Times

Federal immigration officials are pushing back against a U.S. congressman and other supporters of a Mexican national, whom they claim was wrongfully arrested and detained.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Juan Manuel Guardian Romero at his brother's Spruce Pine home April 14 during a mass-arrest operation that netted 26 arrests in Western North Carolina and more than 40 across the state.

Guardian Romero's friends, family members, immigrant-rights advocates and the office of Rep. David Price, a North Carolina Democrat, told the Citizen Times Wednesday that Guardian Romero was visiting the country with legal documentation and was therefore wrongfully arrested.

They also announced that Guardian Romero's release from a Georgia immigrant detention facility, where he has been detained for nearly two months, was imminent.

ICE Spokesman Bryan Cox said Thursday they were wrong on both points.

Though Guardian Romero was traveling in the United States with a current U.S. tourist visa, he had not come into the country through a designated port of entry, according to ICE.

"There's no disputing that he had a valid visa; he absolutely had a valid visa," Cox said Thursday.

But that's not enough to ensure lawful status in the United States. A traveler must also pass through a designated port of entry.

Related: Man arrested in North Carolina ICE raid was here legally, advocates say

Related: ICE raids extend beyond WNC as at least 40 are arrested across state

Cox said that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol records show that Guardian Romero entered the country lawfully on Dec. 7 and returned to Mexico on Jan. 26. Though his visa and I-94 form were good through June 6 — a fact ICE doesn't dispute — there is no record of legal re-entry into the United States, Cox said.

"Even if a person is eligible to legally come across the border, you can't just walk in," Cox said. "If you illegally re-enter the country, then you're in the country unlawfully even if he could have been here legally."

Price spokesman Justin Wein was unsatisfied by ICE's rebuttal and said in an email the congressman is still working with ICE to determine why the agency "reversed its earlier decision to release him."

"If ICE has additional information justifying his continued detention, they have a burden to produce such evidence," Wein wrote. "In the meantime, we have encouraged Mr. Guardian-Romero’s family to seek assistance from an experienced, board-certified immigration attorney.”

In an initial response to a Citizen Times query Wednesday, Cox said only that Guardian-Romero was still in custody, that ICE was aware of and investigating the allegations of wrongful arrest and that the agency would provide more information later.

Cox said Thursday that Guardian Romero will remain in ICE custody and will go before a federal immigration judge. ICE will await the court's ruling before taking further action, Cox said.

What happens in that courtroom — according to Hendersonville-based immigration attorney George Pappas — will all come down to one key point: whether Guardian Romero had and presented all of his documentation at the time of his arrest.

If, as friends and family members say, Guardian Romero presented copies of his passport, visa and I-94 to the arresting ICE agents, then they would have no reasonable suspicion to arrest him, Pappas said.

Even if he'd left the country and re-entered unlawfully, the only information before the arresting agents would be was a stamped passport and a current visa with an I-94 to match. An arrest under these conditions would violate Guardian Romero's Fourth Amendment rights, Pappas said.

"I would argue it's an unlawful arrest and any evidence after that should be suppressed, and I would argue that he could sue the government for unlawful arrest and detention if he showed his documentation," Pappas said.

If, however, Guardian Romero didn't have all the necessary documentation when ICE agents came knocking, "that's a lawful arrest," Pappas said.

Cox said Thursday that Guardian Romero was missing his I-94 when he was arrested on April 14.

Guardian Romero's brother Jesus and friend Santiago Garcia Leco both told the Citizen Times Wednesday that Juan Manuel had and presented all of the necessary documents at the time of his arrest.

Neither Cox nor Jesus nor Garcia Leco were present when ICE arrested Juan Manuel. Now his fate rests in the hands of a federal immigration judge who wasn't either.