Did Border Patrol Knowingly Detain An American Citizen? The Plot Thickens

  |  
Jul 26, 2019

The case of U.S. Customs and Border Protection allegedly detaining Francisco Erwin Galicia, an American citizen, for three weeks just got a whole lot crazier.

In response to a question from Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) about the detained U.S. citizen during a House Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Border Patrol’s Chief of Law Enforcement Brian Hastings stated that the individual never claimed to be an American citizen.

“I can give you some preliminary. The individual came through the Falfurrias checkpoint. He came through with the other illegal aliens. The individual claimed to be a Mexican national who was born in Reynosa, Mexico,” Hastings said. “Throughout the process, and while he was with Border Patrol, he claimed to be a citizen of Mexico with no immigration documents to be in or remain in the U.S.”

“Upon further investigation, we also found he had a border crossing card and that border crossing card he had used 53 times to cross the border into the U.S. which gives us further indication that he was not a U.S. citizen,” he continued. “At no time in Border Patrol custody did he say that he was a U.S. citizen.”

Watch:

According to The Washington Post, Francisco’s mother, a Mexican citizen living in Edinburg illegally, “listed her son on a U.S. tourist visa as being born in Mexico. She also falsified information on his birth certificate.”

In response to this news, several online commentators suggest that Galicia’s failure to mention his citizenship may indicate that he is a coyote, while others allege that Galicia did claim to be an American citizen, just not until a few days of detention had gone by.

Either way, this whole situation is fishy.