Brian José Morales García says immigration agents rejected his citizenship claim and pressured him to accept removal after a traffic stop
By Midtown Times Staff
AUSTIN, Texas (Midtown Times) — A 25-year-old construction worker born in Denver has returned to the United States after federal immigration authorities detained him during a Texas traffic stop and deported him to Mexico despite his repeated claims of American citizenship.
Brian José Morales García returned through Laredo on Aug. 30, nearly five months after he was removed from the country. The Justice Department permitted his return after his attorneys submitted a certified Colorado birth record, hospital documents and witness affidavits supporting his citizenship claim.
The agreement allows Morales García to remain in the United States while his federal lawsuit challenging his detention and deportation continues. His attorneys are seeking financial damages and a judicial declaration confirming his citizenship.
His case highlights a longstanding problem within the immigration-enforcement system: American citizens and people with credible citizenship claims can be detained or removed when agents reject their documents, misidentify them or fail to investigate their claims fully.
Traffic stop led to immigration detention
Morales García was traveling with his employer and another worker to an air-conditioning job near Fredericksburg on April 3 when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped their pickup truck for an alleged window-tint violation.
Because Morales García speaks little English, local officers were called to help translate. Immigration authorities were then contacted after he could not immediately produce identification or proof of citizenship.
Morales García said he repeatedly explained that he was born in Denver and had a copy of his birth certificate and Social Security card at his home in Austin. He maintains that authorities did not give him an opportunity to retrieve or present those documents.
He was booked into the Gillespie County Jail before Border Patrol agents assumed custody. Over the following days, he was transferred through several detention facilities.
Morales García and his attorneys allege that officers stripped and pushed him and warned that he could face years in prison if he continued insisting that he was a citizen. Fearing prolonged detention and wanting to return to his wife and newborn daughter in Mexico, he eventually signed documents agreeing to removal.
He was placed on a flight to Mexico on April 7.
Government disputed citizenship claim
The Department of Homeland Security initially denied detaining an American citizen.
DHS said record searches indicated that Morales García was unlawfully present and that he admitted being a Mexican national who had crossed into the United States illegally.
Morales García disputes that account. He said agents repeatedly accused him of lying after he told them he had entered legally through El Paso. According to his lawsuit, he ultimately invented details about an unlawful crossing because officers threatened him with imprisonment and he believed agreeing with them would accelerate his release.
Morales García holds dual American and Mexican citizenship. His Mexican identification contains a different spelling of his first name—“Bryan” rather than “Brian”—and a different birth date.
His mother said those discrepancies originated when a Mexican clerk registered him for citizenship after the family returned to Mexico during his childhood. She said the clerk used the more common Spanish spelling of his name and changed the date without consulting his American documents.
Such discrepancies can complicate database searches, but immigration attorneys say differences in names and dates are not unusual among people holding records from more than one country.
Documents support Denver birth
Morales García’s birth certificate identifies Denver as his birthplace. His attorneys also obtained records showing that he was admitted to a Denver hospital on the day he was born.
His family moved back to Mexico when he was approximately a year old, and he was raised there. In January 2025, Morales García traveled to El Paso, presented his American birth certificate at the border and was admitted into the United States, he said.
He later relocated to Austin, where he found work installing air-conditioning systems and sent money to his wife, who was pregnant at the time.
After his deportation, his legal team filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit and submitted additional evidence of his birth. The government subsequently agreed to allow him to reenter while the litigation proceeds.
Attorney Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch met him in Laredo when he returned. She has accused authorities of racial profiling and argued that American citizens are not legally required to carry proof of citizenship while traveling inside the country.
DHS and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to questions about whether the government now formally recognizes Morales García as a citizen, according to The Texas Tribune.
Citizens caught in immigration enforcement
The federal government does not publish comprehensive statistics showing how frequently American citizens are wrongly detained or deported.
A 2021 Government Accountability Office report found that available ICE records identified 674 arrests, 121 detentions and 70 removals involving potential U.S. citizens between fiscal year 2015 and March 2020. The watchdog also concluded that ICE did not systematically maintain enough data to determine the full extent of such enforcement actions.
The GAO recommended stronger recordkeeping and more consistent supervision whenever a detained person presents evidence of possible American citizenship.
Morales García is now attempting to resume his life and work in Texas. His return resolves his immediate separation from the country where he was born, but the pending lawsuit will determine whether officials are held legally responsible for his detention and removal.
