Remember when Florida promised its new "papers please" law wouldn't target American citizens?
Meet Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old Georgian who made the rookie mistake of being born in America while brown. As reported in Raw Story, he got nabbed during a traffic stop where he wasn't even driving.
Lopez-Gomez showed his U.S. birth certificate in court — you know, that little document that proves citizenship. The judge even did the whole hold-it-up-to-the-light routine like she was checking a $20 bill at a dive bar. Yep, that's legit! she declared, right before saying she couldn't do anything about it.
From Raw Story:
Based on her inspection of his birth certificate and Social Security card, Riggans said she found no probable cause for the charge. However, the state prosecutor insisted the court lacked jurisdiction over Lopez-Gomez's release because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had formally asked the jail to hold him.
"This court does not have any jurisdiction other than what I've already done," Riggans said.
In Ron DeSantis's Florida, even having the golden ticket of American citizenship doesn't matter if you don't look, talk, and think exactly like him.
This is the second time in a week ICE has tried to detain Lopez-Gomez. Georgia officials actually looked at his documents and let him go, making the Peach State look downright progressive by comparison.
If you're keeping score at home, that's now a US-born doctor, lawyer, and this Georgia native in ICE's crosshairs. At this rate, they'll be asking Oprah for her papers by next month.
