For three days, 32-year-old Jordan Mitchell sat in a California jail cell, stripped of his freedom and his identity after being arrested during a routine ICE raid targeting undocumented immigrants. The problem? Mitchell is a U.S. citizen.
It all started when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a raid in a residential area near Bakersfield, California. Mitchell, who was on his way to work, was stopped, questioned, and eventually handcuffed despite showing officers a valid California ID and Social Security card.
“I told them again and again, ‘I’m American. I was born here.’ But they didn’t listen,” Mitchell said in an emotional interview following his release. “They treated me like I didn’t matter.”
He was detained, processed, and sent to an immigration facility before being transferred to county jail. It wasn’t until a public defender reviewed his documents that officials realized the grave error.
The incident has sparked outrage from civil rights advocates and local leaders, many calling it another example of ICE’s unchecked power and systemic profiling. “This shouldn’t happen to anyone let alone a U.S. citizen with valid documents,” said one ACLU representative. “It highlights how broken and reckless our immigration enforcement system has become.”
ICE has since issued a statement calling the arrest “unfortunate” and blaming “miscommunication and identity confusion,” but has not apologized publicly or offered restitution.
For Mitchell, the experience left scars. “You grow up believing your country protects you. But for three days, I was treated like a criminal just because of how I look.”
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