ICE deported Brian Morales Garcia, who says he is a U.S. citizen, to Mexico after a Texas traffic stop

On April 3, 2026, a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled over a pickup truck near Fredericksburg, Texas, for a window-tint violation. When passenger Brian Jose Morales Garcia, a 25-year-old who says he was born in Denver but grew up in Mexico, could not immediately produce identification, the trooper summoned Gillespie County Sheriff's deputies and Fredericksburg police to help translate, and officers then called federal immigration agents, who asked them to hold the men. Morales, who does not speak English and holds dual Mexican citizenship, was booked into the Gillespie County Jail before U.S. Border Patrol agents took custody of him.

Morales said he repeatedly told police and immigration agents that he was a U.S. citizen and that copies of his birth certificate and Social Security card were at his home in Austin, but he was denied the opportunity to retrieve them. He was held for five days. Fearing he would be detained for months, he signed documents agreeing to a quick deportation so he could rejoin his wife and newborn daughter in Mexico, and was removed on April 7, 2026. "Eventually I told them what they wanted to hear because I wanted to speed up the process," he said. He and his lawyer later provided a Social Security card, a Denver birth certificate, and a Denver hospital record showing he was admitted the day he was born.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security disputes that Morales is a U.S. citizen and claims he admitted entering the country illegally. Removing a person who asserts U.S. citizenship without first adjudicating that claim, and denying him the chance to present proof of identity, bypasses the procedural protections that immigration law requires before deportation.

Updates

2026-04-17 — Attorneys filed federal lawsuit seeking his return [1]

Morales' attorneys filed a lawsuit on his behalf in federal court in Austin, arguing that he was coerced into saying he entered the country illegally. The suit asks a federal judge to allow him to return to the United States using his birth certificate and to bar immigration officials from deporting him again.

2026-05-07 — Federal judge held hearing, deferred ruling on return request [4]

At a May 7, 2026 hearing, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman called the case "highly unusual" and did not rule on Morales' request for a temporary restraining order that would let him return to the United States while his citizenship claim is litigated. The federal government asked for at least 30 days to investigate his citizenship claim.

2026-08-30 — DOJ allowed Morales to return to the U.S. after additional evidence [5]

The U.S. Department of Justice agreed to allow Morales to enter the United States while his lawsuit over his detention and deportation proceeds, after his legal team submitted additional documents — including hospital records, witness affidavits, and his certified Colorado birth record — as part of the litigation. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, picked him up in Laredo. DHS and DOJ did not respond to a request for comment. Morales' civil-rights lawsuit remains pending.