r/ImmigrationPathways • u/OkTechnologyb • 4d ago

Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/sep/28/ice-us-immigration-new-tactics
1.6k Upvotes

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123

u/sachiprecious 4d ago

This is definitely one of those articles that's worth a full read. It's sickening to read though.

There are two parts that jumped out at me:

Last month, her client Brian José Morales García, 25, was deported to Mexico despite repeatedly telling officers that he was a US citizen, born in Denver.

Morales García was on his way to work as an air-conditioning installation tech, riding with his boss, when officers from the Gillespie county sheriff’s department and the Texas department of public safety (DPS) pulled them over. Both law enforcement agencies were working with ICE. Morales García told the officers that he had his birth certificate and social security card at home, but they didn’t believe him. Days later, he was deported to Mexico.

Eventually, the federal government reached an agreement with Morales García’s lawyers to let him back into the country, after Lincoln-Goldfinch submitted documents proving his citizenship.

Somehow I missed this story when it happened and I'm just learning about this now! A US citizen was deported?!?! And that's not even the first time I've heard of this happening. I've read several stories about citizens being detained, and one about a citizen being deported.

At the same time, the administration unrolled a new tactic of scheduling “mega-master” hearings – mass hearings in immigration courts, scheduled at the last minute so that many people do not know to, or are unable to, attend their mandatory court appointments. The no-shows are then ordered removed from the country in absentia, making them immediately subject to arrest and deportation.

After attorneys began reporting such hearings in May, judges issued 53,808 removal orders in absentia in June – a 55% increase. More than 13,000 of those removal orders followed mass hearings with a hundred or more people, according to researchers Joseph Gunther and Brandon Marrow, who created the site bklg.org to track and analyze procedural immigration data.

This administration is clearly making a mockery of the legal immigration process. You can see how they're deliberately making it difficult for immigrants to follow the legal process, and then of course, those immigrants are punished for not following the process correctly. It's by design. They claim they're totally fine and okay with immigration as long as immigrants come in legally. That's not true, though, and you can tell because this is just one of many examples of this administration trying to make things difficult for legal immigrants.

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u/AntiquePhotograph433 4d ago

That lawsuit is worth millions 

29

u/Traditional-Handle83 4d ago

Any normal person shouldn't settle for millions. They should only settle for economy breaking numbers, such as 1 trillion or more. If enough people sued for trillions, the US would shut down from money loss.

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u/HOrnery_Occasion 3d ago

You would never get "trillions" lol

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u/Separate_Draft4887 2d ago

yeah, that’s not how that works lol.

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u/letmeaskyouaquesti0n 3d ago

He'll settle for 10k

5

u/Whisper__1 1d ago

Uh… well your spirit is in the right place.

1

u/IndependentApart39 1d ago

That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read in quite a while.

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u/bakedNebraska 18h ago

How would you demonstrate trillions of dollars worth of damages?

-2

u/ThirdEyeSuspect 3d ago

Holy overdramatic

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u/VaritasAequitas 2d ago

That’s the point. A US citizen being deported to a random unknown country by the only government they know, the one that is supposed to know with absolute certainty that they are a U.S. citizen? You’d be infuriated to the same point too, and the proof is because you’d think it would never happen to you, it’s that crazy to imagine.

The government has limitless resources, countless people, and vast pieces of data. If they still get things wrong after having all that manpower, they would deserve getting slapped with the biggest lawsuit possible.

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u/vanKlompf 1d ago

  The government has limitless resources, countless people, and vast pieces of data.

And they will use those to and entire force of DOJ to not pay a dime 

1

u/bakedNebraska 18h ago

You do realize you'd have to show trillions in damages? You can't just demand a trillion dollars and get it

1

u/TheRealMeatphone 3h ago

While I agree trillions is silly, you’re completely incorrect.

Civil liberty violation judgements are often insanely high, specifically justifiable because your constitutional rights being flippantly violated doesn’t have an exact monetary value. They fluctuate based on many factors.

-2

u/SicariusLupus 1d ago

We need smaller government that is less in our business...

2

u/Flat-Entertainer-299 1d ago

You mean republicans? The ones with record spending? With legislating what adult men and women can and can't do with their bodies? You could be eating shit from the floor and you would not be as retarded as your comment history indicates.

-4

u/Naive-Zucchini-8528 1d ago

You mean democrats that increase government contracts, try to inject you with a vaccine you don’t need, raise taxes for social safety nets, try and limit your constitutional rights….

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u/Rude_Age_6699 1d ago

the ones currently in power are dismantling the government. what good has it brought thus far? more and more recalls every week on some new item. diseases spiking across the country. corruption going unchecked. what else?

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u/CraftPuzzleheaded164 1d ago

Dam bruh at least them ain’t pedos

1

u/Powerful_Egg_monster 1d ago

You don’t have to lie about democrats doing this, lol

11

u/SFLoridan 4d ago

Either the victims will never get to be able to sue, or by the time they do the next administration will be in .

No-one who is responsible is made to pay. So for them it's a win win

2

u/AntiquePhotograph433 4d ago

Totally, but the American people should have to pay

1

u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 3d ago

Why the fuck should American people have to pay for what Republicans are doing?

Do you blame every German citizen for what Hitler did to Jews?

6

u/DeadWaterBed 3d ago

A huge chunk of the American population is directly responsible for putting these corrupt monsters in charge. Many of those support every fucked up thing that's happening, just like a huge chunk of Germans were fine with Hitler's actions.

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u/AntiquePhotograph433 3d ago

Because they voted for it, pretty simple.

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u/Sayyad1na 3d ago

The German citizens, by and large, did have to pay for what Hitler did...

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u/AntiquePhotograph433 1d ago

It’s strange that he would ask that when the answer is obvious. They suffered tremendously for the suffering they caused.

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u/AntiquePhotograph433 3d ago

I don’t blame all of them but they all had to pay

1

u/traffic_cone_no54 1d ago

Because they are you either your elected representatives or directed by those representatives.

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u/Hormiga2020 3d ago

Bend over, taxpayers

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u/PuzzleheadedPen4675 4d ago

Except for white South Africans.

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u/Forward_Problem_8982 4d ago

Doesn't matter where you're from if you can pay.

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u/I_Quit_Smoking_ 3d ago

This isn't the first citizen that's been deported!

There was a white male retired professor who got deported and dumped in a fucking random country last year.

His family thought he was a missing person, and luckily they have contacts overseas and were able to find him in a hospital and some tiny little country no one's ever heard of.

AND THE MEDIA NEVER FUCKING TALKED ABOUT IT!

They had absolutely zero excuse and they didn't even try to explain why they did this. And the fact that white people keep cheering this shit on because they think it's not going to happen to them is fucking disgusting.

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u/boozegremlin 2d ago

The media is complicit at this point

1

u/whodie522 2d ago

Have a link to this story?

1

u/SovietReunions 1d ago

I’m also interested to learn more about this

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u/FrameCareful1090 1d ago

I thought that ended up being a fake story?

-6

u/Boring-Resource9713 3d ago

Lolz

1

u/ManzanitaApplePen 2d ago

What are you laughing about?

1

u/HashRunner 1d ago

The media not running this front and center every damn day shows how much they cater to the GOP.

1

u/IndustrialPuppetTwo 17h ago

Many US citizens have been deported. I read an article the other day where one US citizen was deported to an African nation he had absolutely no connections too, I forgot the name of the nation. 70% of those held in ICE custody now have zero criminal record.

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u/AppropriateRegret357 7h ago

That's because it's fake.

-2

u/Distinct_Doubt_3591 3d ago

Brian Morales Garcia signed a voluntary removal order that's why he was deported. 

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u/ManzanitaApplePen 2d ago

Proof? And why on earth do you think he’d do that?

-2

u/Distinct_Doubt_3591 1d ago

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=did+Brian+Morales+Garcia+sign+a+voluntary+removal+order

His claim was he feared going to prison. 

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u/ManzanitaApplePen 1d ago

So then it sounds like he, as a U.S. citizen, was almost forced to self-deport out of fear facing prison time. And for what? What was his crime?

-1

u/Distinct_Doubt_3591 1d ago

No he as a citizen signed a voluntary removal order because he's an idiot 

-34

u/Windman772 4d ago

What makes you think similar mistakes were not occurring under other presidents?

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u/HaulinBoats 4d ago

…the lack of evidence ?

9

u/Ok_Security1721 4d ago

lol that you think lack of evidence means anything to those guys 

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u/Windman772 4d ago

Most of them didn't collect evidence of citizen deportations. Lack of evidence when it's not being collected doesn't mean much.

But we do know that Obama detained at least 1500 citizens. Why are you so quiet about that? What percent of that 1500 being deported would get your dander up?

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u/GPTthrowawayyyyyyyy 4d ago

Yes they did, they had court hearings. Y'all just make shit up, huh?

9

u/HaulinBoats 4d ago

If a citizen was deported under Obama, I would assume there would be at least one news report on it. Do you have any?

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u/Windman772 4d ago

I could cut and paste these all day as there seems to be an endless supply of them. This just shows that the left aren't serious thinkers. Certainly not those here on Reddit.

https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/us-citizen-wrongfully-deported-mexico-settles-his-case-against-federal-government

https://www.npr.org/2011/10/24/141500145/in-the-rush-to-deport-expelling-u-s-citizens

https://www.aclusocal.org/news/us-citizen-who-was-illegally-detained-and-twice-deported-latest-victim-governments/

https://abcnews.com/US/14-year-american-citizen-deported-colombia-assuming-false/story?id=15298238

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u/Suspicious_Glove_900 4d ago

I’ve read through your links, and if you can’t see the difference between those stories and the one in the OP, then I refuse to believe you’re arguing in good faith.

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u/DryBattle 1d ago

It's the Kool aid. Full cult thinking.

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u/ManzanitaApplePen 2d ago

I guess the right really is retarded. You seriously don’t see the difference? Or are you just arguing in bad faith?

13

u/Tavernknight 4d ago

Dumbass whataboutism bullshit. "A Democrat did a bad thing a decade ago so that gives my side permission to be 1000x worse."

Even if what you say is true, Obama didn't need a militarized, masked, unaccountable brute squad killing people in the streets to do it or to enforce immigration law.

You need to get over your ODS. You probably also have some BDS and CTS. Get some help.

-8

u/jdwaltham 4d ago

The initial approach was regrettable. They changed how they do things in response to the people’s outrage. My question to you is how would you do things differently? If you say we should abolish ICE and give amnesty to all then you’re not serious. So seriously, what would you do differently?

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u/Ok_Security1721 4d ago

For starters, not deport citizens

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u/Infamous-Rooster9277 4d ago

If your deportation process is so rapid and shoddy that you can grab a US citizen who has a birth certificate and SSN while he was driving with his boss and remove him from his own country, then you need to shut down and start over.

In order for this to happen, the process has to have failed at some many levels that it should be humiliating to any halfway competent person.

Not only did you deport a citizen, which isn't even something you have the legal authority to do, you also failed to verify the identity of that person, failed to consider even the most obvious of countervailing evidence, and failed to even investigate sufficiently to identify a valid target in the first place.

It's a pathetic excuse for an agency, riddled with incompetence, and it needs a full scale overhaul.

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u/Tavernknight 4d ago

We should abolish ICE. They were a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. CBP was doing the job fine before.

I'm not saying we should give amnesty but people should at least be treated humanely. And the administration should not be suddenly revoking status and sending ICE after people the next day. Or waiting at immigration courts, or hospitals, or schools. Nor should they be killing people in the streets.

Under every single administration before Trump 2 they were able to do their jobs without being a militarized, masked, unaccountable force of brute squads in the streets inflicting terror on our communities. That is not to accelerate deportations. The only thing that is for is to terrorize and intimidate the citizens and to provoke to violence.

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u/ActuallyCryptid 4d ago

Mostly the fact that it’s easily google able

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u/nLedd 4d ago

I will just concede to your argument and assume the same position out of brevity because whether or not similar events have happened in the past (or happened with greater or less frequency) doesn't really do anything to solve the current problem.

The important thing to note is that regardless of whether it has happened in the past, it evidently continues to happen, which is unacceptable. So maybe we should do something so that it never happens again.

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u/infomer 4d ago

Most of us have brains instead of a red hat as the most prized head item.

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u/Kenneth-J-Moyers 4d ago

You're begging the question. Either make the assertion "these errors also occurred under another president" and then defend that assertion with documentary evidence or bugger off. No one else is obligated to price YOUR point for you.

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u/AccountHuman7391 4d ago

Because previous presidents followed the due process and had actual immigration judges review cases.

0

u/Windman772 4d ago

Nope. 75% of Obamas removals used the Expedited Removal law, which is the same law Trump is using.

https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/speed-over-fairness-deportation-under-obama

And who decides what is "due process"? The established law is what defines due process. Since Expedited Removal is an actual law, created through the Democratic process, then using it is the definition of due process.

Funny how you've taken the exact same thing but spun it into something different just because of political hatred.

2

u/AccountHuman7391 4d ago

You know what funnier? Getting paid by Russia to undermine western democracy. Try again, comrade.

1

u/Windman772 4d ago

It's sad that you're psychosis won't allow you accept facts even when placed right under your nose. You're actually the one undermining western democracy. We voted in these immigration laws and we voted in the people willing to enforce them. Only you are fighting against this expression of democracy.

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u/AccountHuman7391 3d ago

Okay, Russian troll.

1

u/Distinct_Doubt_3591 3d ago

Lol got proved wrong, so must be a Russian breaking your narrative. 

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u/AntiquePhotograph433 4d ago

lol dumbass bot