Latest news with #wrongfuldetention
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
This ad hits a nerve because it's true
A new ad from the Progress Action Fund dramatizes a nightmare too many still face: masked ICE agents drag away a young woman mid-date. 'She looks like one of them,' says a fictional congressman, before declaring she's being sent to prison in El Salvador. Her date shouts after them: 'She was born here. She's a citizen.' The video, which has blown up across social media, isn't subtle, but it doesn't have to be. It taps into a very real climate where immigration status is judged on sight, not fact. And while some critics dismiss it as over-the-top fearmongering, the truth is harder to ignore: U.S. citizens are being wrongfully detained by ICE. This isn't hyperbole. It's already happened — and more than once. In April, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old American born in Georgia, was arrested in Florida. Despite providing a birth certificate and multiple forms of ID, he was held for days because local authorities flagged him to ICE who insisted he 'matched a profile.' In January, Chicago community organizers allege that up to 22 people — some legal residents, others full citizens — were wrongfully swept up in workplace ICE raids earlier this summer. And in a now-infamous case from over a decade ago, Davino Watson, a U.S. citizen from New York, spent over three years in ICE custody. The government later admitted it had detained the wrong person. These aren't isolated incidents. They're symptoms of an enforcement system that increasingly prioritizes suspicion over status, and optics over due process. The Progress Action Fund video doesn't just dramatize fear. It weaponizes a reality many Americans already live with. ICE has wrongfully detained U.S. citizens, and social media continues to blur the line between 'undocumented' and 'unwelcome.' What we're seeing isn't just enforcement — it's escalation. Citizenship no longer guarantees protection when people believe Americanness has a look, a sound, or a skin tone. In that climate, all it takes is a uniform and a wrong assumption to disappear someone, legally or not. And if that doesn't terrify us more than a political ad, it should.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
This ad hits a nerve because it's true
A new ad from the Progress Action Fund dramatizes a nightmare too many still face: masked ICE agents drag away a young woman mid-date. 'She looks like one of them,' says a fictional congressman, before declaring she's being sent to prison in El Salvador. Her date shouts after them: 'She was born here. She's a citizen.' The video, which has blown up across social media, isn't subtle, but it doesn't have to be. It taps into a very real climate where immigration status is judged on sight, not fact. And while some critics dismiss it as over-the-top fearmongering, the truth is harder to ignore: U.S. citizens are being wrongfully detained by ICE. This isn't hyperbole. It's already happened — and more than once. In April, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old American born in Georgia, was arrested in Florida. Despite providing a birth certificate and multiple forms of ID, he was held for days because local authorities flagged him to ICE who insisted he 'matched a profile.' In January, Chicago community organizers allege that up to 22 people — some legal residents, others full citizens — were wrongfully swept up in workplace ICE raids earlier this summer. And in a now-infamous case from over a decade ago, Davino Watson, a U.S. citizen from New York, spent over three years in ICE custody. The government later admitted it had detained the wrong person. These aren't isolated incidents. They're symptoms of an enforcement system that increasingly prioritizes suspicion over status, and optics over due process. The Progress Action Fund video doesn't just dramatize fear. It weaponizes a reality many Americans already live with. ICE has wrongfully detained U.S. citizens, and social media continues to blur the line between 'undocumented' and 'unwelcome.' What we're seeing isn't just enforcement — it's escalation. Citizenship no longer guarantees protection when people believe Americanness has a look, a sound, or a skin tone. In that climate, all it takes is a uniform and a wrong assumption to disappear someone, legally or not. And if that doesn't terrify us more than a political ad, it should.
Reuters
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
US, Venezuela each warn citizens against travel to other country
WASHINGTON/CARACAS, May 27 (Reuters) - The United States and Venezuela on Tuesday each warned their respective citizens against traveling to the other country, with the U.S. citing the risk of wrongful detention in the South American nation and Venezuela saying its citizens are victims of systematic rights abuses in the U.S. "U.S. citizens in Venezuela face a significant and growing risk of wrongful detention," the State Department said in a statement. The department has assigned Venezuela, where there is no U.S. Embassy or consulate, its highest travel alert - Level 4: Do Not Travel. It cited risks including torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, unfair law enforcement practices, violent crime, civil unrest and inadequate healthcare. The U.S. has said there are Americans being unfairly held in Venezuela. One man was freed this month, while others were released in January. Venezuela, meanwhile, issued a travel alert for the U.S. and urged its citizens living there to leave. "Venezuelans in the United States are victims of a systematic pattern of abuses of their human rights, being arbitrarily detained, separated from their families and transported to concentration camps in third countries," Venezuela's foreign minister Yvan Gil said on Telegram. Venezuela has decried President Donald Trump's use of a 1798 law to deport hundreds of migrants from the U.S. to El Salvador's most notorious prison. The U.S. Supreme Court this month kept in place its block on Trump's use of the law, faulting his administration for seeking to remove migrants without adequate legal process.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
U.S. warns Americans not to travel to Venezuela due to risks of torture, kidnapping
The U.S. State Department is warning citizens not to travel to Venezuela, warning of "severe risks" including wrongful detention, kidnapping and torture. The State Department said that it does not have an operating embassy or consulate in the South American country, and cannot provide routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens there. All U.S. citizens currently in Venezuela should leave immediately, the State Department said. "U.S. citizens are at extreme risk of detention when entering Venezuela at any location. They may be unjustly charged with terrorism or other serious crimes and detained for long periods," the State Department said in a news release announcing the warning. "U.S. citizens have been detained upon arrival at land borders, airports, and maritime ports of entry. There is no safe way for Americans to travel to Venezuela." More U.S. nationals are currently wrongfully detained in Venezuela than in any other country, the department said. In some cases, detentions have happened when people accidentally cross into Venezuela from neighboring countries, where borders may not be clearly marked. Detained Americans may also be unjustly charged with serious crimes, including terrorism, the State Department said. The Venezuelan government does not report detentions to the U.S. government, making it impossible for the U.S. to visit those citizens or intervene. U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela also cannot contact family members or private attorneys, the State Department said. Other potential concerns in Venezuela include the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, civil unrest and poor health infrastructure, the State Department said. The map below shows State Department travel advisories by country. Hover over a country to see what level advisory it has and search for a specific nation in the table. Travel advisories by country
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Venezuela frees US Air Force veteran considered wrongfully detained, his family says
A United States Air Force veteran detained for several months in Venezuela was released Tuesday, according to a family statement. Joseph St. Clair, who the U.S. government has said was wrongfully detained in the South American country, was handed over to U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell. The family said St. Clair, who had served four tours in Afghanistan, was detained in November. 'This news came suddenly, and we are still processing it, but we are overwhelmed with joy and gratitude,' St. Clair's parents, Scott and Patti, said in a statement. Scott St. Clair earlier this month told The Associated Press his son, a language specialist, had traveled to South America to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Six other Americans detained in Venezuela in the months after the country's July presidential poll were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Grenell in February. Grenell, during the meeting in Venezuela's capital, Caracas, urged Maduro to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the U.S. Hundreds of Venezuelans have since been deported to their home country.
