Case of US citizen held for 7-months will go to court judge rules
February 03 2010 by Liam Clifford
A judge in Seattle, USA, has turned down a request from congress to throw out a law-suit of a US citizen detained for 7-months in a US immigration detention center.
As part of the damages sort, the ex-Army lieutenant, Rennison Castillo, claims officials did not act on information he gave them at the time of his arrest to use military records to verify his status.
His pleas were not heeded and it took authorities 7-months and under the guidance of immigration lawyers that his real identity and citizenship was finally confirmed.
The confusion seems to have been bought about by the fact that Castillo was born outside of the USA and in Belize, South America. He moved to the US with his family when he was 7, then when he joined the army in 1998 he became a naturalized citizen.
Matt Adams, a lawyer working for the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project who are representing Castillo in the case, said; "The government is directly accountable for this as they control these centers”
Government lawyers are countering the claims and arguing that there is no ‘constitutional right’ to a complete search of US immigration files.
Documents filed list conversations officers conducted with the claimant, these show he could not support his claims with any evidence beyond his affirmations of being an American citizen.
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