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MLIVE: Dingell Calls ICE’s Mistaken Detainment of U.S. Citizen ‘Deeply Disturbing’

U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell says she’s disturbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement forcefully detaining one of her constituents outside a Michigan courthouse.

“The detainment of an American citizen based on his race, when he had not been charged with any crime, is horrific, wrong, and does not make our community safer — it does the opposite,” the Ann Arbor Democrat said in a statement Monday, April 7.

“Being handcuffed and thrown on the ground, when he was at a courthouse trying to help someone else to boot, endangers due process and is deeply disturbing,” Dingell said.

Dexter Township residents Ramiro Martinez and Laura Sanders, both U.S. citizens and longtime immigrant rights advocates, said they were at the 35th District Court near Plymouth on Tuesday, April 1, to support an immigrant living in the country without legal permission. The man was there for a traffic ticket after getting pulled over by Canton Township Police.

Martinez, a 48-year-old handyman, landscaper and farmer, said he’s originally from Mexico but has been a U.S. citizen through his marriage to Sanders for several years. At one point on Tuesday, he went outside the courthouse to check on his dog in the car and was surrounded by several ICE agents, he said.

He told agents they had the wrong guy, but they aggressively ordered him to get on the ground, he said.

They didn’t allow him to show ID to prove he’s a citizen and instead they grabbed him, put him face down on the pavement, handcuffed him and took out his wallet, he said.

The encounter lasted about five minutes, he said, and he was free to go after agents realized he was telling the truth.

The immigrant Martinez and Sanders were there to support was later arrested by ICE after leaving the courthouse.

ICE acknowledged the incident in which Martinez was mistaken as the target of an enforcement operation.

Any U.S. immigration officer has authority to question, without warrant, any person believed to be an alien concerning his or her right to be in the country and may request ID to establish identity, an ICE spokesperson said.