DHS Threatens U.S.-Born Immigration Attorney: ‘It Is Time For You To Leave’ | EUROtoday

An American citizen who acquired an e-mail from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling him to depart the United States “immediately” says he believes he’s being singled out for his work as an immigrants’ rights advocate.

Aldo Martinez Gomez says he acquired an e-mail from DHS on April 10 threatening him with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties” if he didn’t go away the nation inside seven days.

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” the letter begins.

“I was taken aback,” he instructed the hosts of “You Don’t Even Like This Show,” a podcast. “Like, I was born on this side, dude. How are you sending this to me?”

Martinez Gomez was born in San Diego County and is a U.S. citizen. He works for a nonprofit as an accredited consultant, defending immigrants within the courtroom.

Every day he goes to work, he says, he invariably is round Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. And regardless that he carries a passport card on him always, he mentioned he doesn’t belief ICE officers gained’t “accidentally” lose it.

“If ICE gets me, I don’t think it’s going to matter either way,” he mentioned. “I carry my border passport card with me. What’s to say they don’t toss it.”

He mentioned he’s been talking to the media, together with KTLA and San Diego’s KGTV, as a result of he desires to depart a paper path they’ll’t erase.

A senior DHS official instructed HuffPost that it despatched the notifications to the e-mail addresses it has on file for immigrants. As such, “Notices may have been sent to unintended recipients.”

Martinez Gomez isn’t shopping for that clarification. Given the quite a few different immigration attorneys who acquired the e-mail, he thinks it’s a deliberate intimidation tactic. Especially since Trump says he desires to ship U.S. residents to El Salvador.

“I’m not seeking fame or attention, I just want to bring light to this issue because I’m not trying to be one of the government’s mistakes,” he instructed KTLA.

One such mistake is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant residing in Maryland that the Trump administration admits was mistakenly despatched to a brutal jail in El Salvador, but refuses to deliver him again in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court order.

Martinez Gomez stays undeterred.

“I’m still going to represent my clients,” he instructed the podcast. “I’m still going to advocate for ― not just immigrant rights, but everyone’s rights. Because the Constitution covers us all.”

Other U.S. residents additionally acquired the threatening e-mail this month, together with a U.S.-born doctor from Connecticut who mentioned she has “no idea” how she ended up on DHS’s radar, and a Massachusetts-born immigration legal professional.