INS DEPORTS POSSIBLE US CITIZEN

The INS recently deported Sergio Madrid-Gonzalez, claiming that he was an undocumented immigrant.  The problem is, Madrid-Gonzalez is probably a US citizen.  He was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, but was born in a hospital in Juarez, Mexico.  His parents, a permanent resident and a US citizen, wanted him to be born in Mexico so that he would have dual citizenship.

As a teenager, Madrid-Gonzalez got in trouble with the law, and was convicted of burglary and domestic assault.  In 1999, after the domestic assault conviction, for which he was sentenced to one year in prison, an immigration judge ordered him deported.  He was sent to Mexico on January 3, 2000, but returned to the US almost immediately.  Following a fight with his girlfriend, he was again arrested for domestic assault and jailed.  During an INS check of jail records for undocumented immigrants, Madrid-Gonzalez came to the agency’s attention.

Madrid-Gonzalez claims derivative citizenship through his father.  Whether one is a US citizen is determined by the law in effect at the time of birth, and when Madrid-Gonzalez was born, the law required that the citizen parent have been physically present in the US for 10 years before the child’s birth, with at least five years after age 14.  Madrid-Gonzalez’ father has worked in the US since 1959.  The INS argued that because his father commuted to work from Mexico, he did not have the required physical presence.  It then placed Madrid-Gonzalez aboard a bus for Mexico without notifying his attorneys or family.  He arrived in Juarez without any money or personal possessions and is staying with an uncle.

What makes the INS’s actions questionable is that just three days before the summary deportation, federal prosecutors dropped charges of illegal reentry, finding evidence of Madrid-Gonzalez’ claim to citizenship persuasive.  Immigration attorneys point to the fact that the statute does not require that the citizen parent reside in the US, only that a certain period of “physical presence” be met.

At this point, it is not known if the INS will rescind the deportation order and allow Madrid-Gonzalez to return to the US.  He can, however, make an application for citizenship at the US Consulate in Juarez.

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