After rookie ICE agent's paperwork error, man is detained for days

"Due to his "lack of experience," he said, he had misunderstood federal immigration jargon and believed that De La Garza's residency bid had been denied - though it hadn't. He repeated his misunderstanding on a form that government attorneys cited in court to justify the detention. On the same form, he also wrongly reported that De La Garza had admitted to illegally entering the country in 2015."

"De Long had been on the job for less than a month, and it was only the second time he had completed the particular form he bungled, court records show. At basic training, he had received only one-third of the instruction time the agency once dedicated to teaching recruits how to fill out that form, according to a review of court filings and Department of Homeland Security records."

"The errors were exposed when De La Garza challenged the legality of his detention in federal court. Attorneys for the government dropped their opposition to his release after discovering their case relied on De Long's misrepresentations. De Long apologized to De La Garza and the court, saying he understood the "seriousness of this mistake.""

A rookie ICE officer named Nolan De Long, hired during a recruitment surge to increase arrests and deportations, made critical errors while processing Carlos De La Garza, a 55-year-old Berkeley resident with a pending green card application. De Long misunderstood immigration terminology and incorrectly reported that De La Garza's residency bid had been denied and that he had admitted to illegal entry in 2015. These errors were cited by government attorneys to justify De La Garza's detention. When challenged in federal court, the government dropped its opposition to his release after discovering the case relied on De Long's misrepresentations. De Long acknowledged his mistakes in a sworn statement, attributing them to lack of experience. He had been employed for less than a month and received only one-third of the training time previously dedicated to teaching officers how to complete the form he mishandled.

Read at The Washington Post