If I were to take Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg at his word, I would accept that he just said he believes the illegal immigrant mom of a wrongfully detained U.S. citizen should be in prison.

Of course, I don't take him at his word, because he routinely lies about immigration. But at the primary debate on Tuesday night, he said that anyone who defrauds the federal government for immigration purposes should be prosecuted as a criminal.

Asked at the debate on Tuesday whether he would decriminalize unauthorized border crossing, Buttigieg, the current mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said yes. He added a caveat, however. He said that if "fraud is involved," then an illegal immigrant would be subject to criminal prosecution.

That means that under a Buttigieg presidency, Sanjuana Galicia, the illegal immigrant mom of a U.S. citizen who was wrongfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would be in serious legal trouble.

Galicia's son Francisco, 18, was born in the U.S. but he was mistakenly placed in an ICE detention center after authorities took him into custody at a checkpoint in Texas. Francisco had the proper documentation to prove he was a U.S. citizen, but cross checking his information proved difficult because his mother had used a false name on his birth certificate and obtained a Mexico-issued tourist visa for him by claiming that he was actually born there.

Francisco Galicia embraces his mother Sanjuana Galicia at the McAllen, Texas, Central Station, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. (Delcia Lopez/AP)

Because of the "fraud," to use Buttigieg's term, Francisco was stuck in the ICE detention facilities for close to a month before he was released.

Under Buttigieg, Francisco's mother might be in prison. But that assumes we would take him at his word, and there's no reason to do that.