US Citizen Released After Being Placed Under ICE Hold In Florida

According to the Miami Herald, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez on Wednesday under a new state anti-immigration law that makes it a misdemeanor for any adult undocumented immigrant who enters the state illegally.

The arrest was made under the new state law despite a federal judge temporarily blocking the state from implementing it and the 20-year-old Lopez-Gomez was charged with entering the state illegally as an “unauthorized alien” despite him being a U.S. citizen.

Earlier on Thursday, Lopez-Gomez appeared virtually before Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans, who acknowledged the 20-year-old’s birth certificate was legitimate and ruled there was no probable cause for the misdemeanor charge against him, according to local outlet Florida Phoenix.

The state’s prosecutor, however, argued the judge lacked jurisdiction over the detained man’s release, as the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally requested Lopez-Gomez be put under a 48-hour immigration detention.

Lopez-Gomez was released later on Thursday evening, a Florida Immigrant Coalition spokesperson confirmed on X and thanked “everyone who shared, call and did anything to help secure his release.”