An Austin man born in Denver was deported by ICE after a Texas traffic stop, despite documented proof of US citizenship — raising urgent questions about due process and racial profiling under the current enforcement crackdown.
What Happened on April 3
Brian Jose Morales Garcia was 25 years old, living in Austin, working for an HVAC company, and expecting his first child. On the afternoon of April 3, 2026, he was riding in his employer’s truck to a worksite when a Texas state trooper stopped the vehicle just east of Fredericksburg on Texas 290.
The stated reason for the stop: a window tint violation. No ticket was issued.
When the trooper approached, the driver — Jesus Parga, a US citizen — instinctively reached for his Mexican passport from the center console. The trooper ordered Parga out of the truck and began questioning the other men about their immigration status. Gillespie County sheriff’s deputies arrived to translate. All three men were taken to the county jail. Parga was booked on an outstanding warrant. Morales Garcia and the other passenger were held at ICE’s request.
Four days later, Brian Jose Morales Garcia was deported to Mexico.
He was born in Denver, Colorado, in 2001.
The Documents Were There. The Government Refused to Look.
Morales Garcia did not deny being born in the United States. From the moment of his arrest, he told agents he was a US citizen. He asked them to check his documents.
“They didn’t believe me; they were intimidating me so that I’d sign,” Morales Garcia said. “I figured that I’d come back with my birth certificate.”
His friends acted immediately. Parga’s wife, Bianey de la Rosa, drove from Austin to the Gillespie County jail with a copy of Morales Garcia’s passport and a photocopy of his Social Security card. By the time she arrived — roughly two hours later — he had already been transferred to Border Patrol custody. Parga said he tried calling Border Patrol multiple times in the following days to provide the birth certificate. No one would accept it.
In detention, Morales Garcia says agents mocked him when he asserted his citizenship.
“They laughed, they had a mocking tone and they were mad,” he said. Officials pressured him to say he had crossed the border illegally. He eventually signed a statement to that effect.
“It was what they wanted to hear,” he said. Afraid of prolonged detention, separated from his pregnant wife, and believing he could return with his documents, he agreed to deportation after four days.
The Austin American-Statesman independently reviewed copies of his Colorado birth certificate, hospital records, and a baptismal certificate. Denver Vital Records confirmed to the Statesman that “there’s a record available” for someone with Morales Garcia’s name and date of birth. The Denver Archdiocese confirmed the baptismal record.
“There just is no dispute about whether he is a U.S. citizen,” said his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. “What happened here was not that they reviewed those documents and decided that they didn’t care. What happened here was that they immediately assumed that he was lying.”
In its public statement, US Customs and Border Protection wrote: “CBP did NOT arrest a U.S. citizen.” The agency provided no evidence to support that claim and did not dispute Morales Garcia’s account.
How This Happened: The Pipeline from Traffic Stop to Deportation
Understanding how a US citizen ends up deported in four days requires understanding the enforcement infrastructure that made it possible.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has an agreement to assist ICE with immigration enforcement. The Gillespie County Sheriff’s Office has a 287(g) agreement — a formal arrangement that allows local law enforcement to detain individuals at ICE’s request. When the trooper stopped the truck and saw a Mexican passport on the dashboard, a chain of referrals was set in motion that moved faster than any documentation could follow.
Jesus Parga, the driver and a US citizen himself, believes the stop was the result of racial profiling — based on the men’s appearance and the type of vehicle they were driving, a 2003 Chevy Silverado loaded with HVAC equipment. “He told me to get down from the truck; he had me sit down on the dirt,” Parga said of the trooper’s response when he reached for his passport. No ticket was issued for the alleged window tint violation.
University of Texas immigration law professor Elissa Steglich told the Statesman that the case raises serious questions about federal agents’ willingness to detain — and deport — individuals without allowing for due process. “All the empirical studies show that the coercive nature of detention results in people giving up valid claims for relief,” Steglich said. “That is the power of detention, and that is why this administration is using detention so aggressively.”
This Is Not an Isolated Case
The deportation of Brian Jose Morales Garcia would be shocking in isolation. It is not isolated.
A ProPublica investigation published last October found more than 170 cases in which US citizens were detained during immigration raids and operations in the first nine months of Trump’s second term. Of more than 50 Americans detained after federal agents questioned their status — almost all of whom were Latino — many reported being held for over a day without being able to contact relatives or lawyers. In some cases, families could not locate them at all.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that it did not find a previously confirmed case of a US citizen being deported during Trump’s current administration. Morales Garcia’s case appears to be the first confirmed deportation of a US citizen in this term — a distinction that carries enormous legal and constitutional weight.
This is what happens when the enforcement system is designed for speed and volume rather than accuracy. When agents are under pressure to make arrests and process deportations quickly, when local law enforcement is deputized to hold people at ICE’s request, when detention is used deliberately to coerce people into giving up their rights — the system will inevitably sweep up people who have every legal right to be here. Including people who were born here.
A Life Put on Hold
Brian Jose Morales Garcia was born in Denver in 2001. His mother moved the family to Mexico when he was a toddler to care for her ailing father. He grew up in Aguascalientes. In January 2025, now a husband and expectant father, he crossed back into the United States legally — presenting his birth certificate at the border — to live with his brother in Denver and find work. He ended up in Austin, where a family friend gave him a job.
He was deported 83 days after arriving. He left behind a pregnant wife, a job, a community, and a country that is constitutionally his.
He says he plans to return.
What This Means for Everyone — Including US Citizens
The implications of this case extend far beyond one man’s story.
If a US citizen with a Colorado birth certificate, hospital records, and a baptismal certificate can be deported in four days because agents “immediately assumed he was lying” — then the protections that are supposed to distinguish citizens from non-citizens in the enforcement process are not functioning.
The current enforcement environment — the 287(g) agreements, the traffic stop referrals, the detention pressure, the speed of deportation processing — creates conditions where errors like this become not just possible but predictable. The ProPublica data showing 170 detained citizens in nine months was a warning. This case is what that warning looks like when it becomes a reality.
For anyone who is a US citizen but whose documentation is not readily accessible — who was born abroad to American parents, who has a complicated name history, who grew up outside the country, or who simply does not carry their birth certificate to work — this case is a wake-up call. The system is not currently built to catch its own mistakes before they become deportations.
And for the tens of thousands of immigrants who are not citizens but who have legal status, pending cases, or valid claims to relief — the coercive power of detention that Steglich describes is being used deliberately to pressure people into giving up those claims. Morales Garcia’s experience is an extreme version of what immigration attorneys see every day: people signing documents they do not fully understand, agreeing to removal because they are afraid, because they are isolated, because they are told it is the only way out.
Powers Law Group Is Here
If you or someone you know has been detained — whether you are a US citizen, a green card holder, a visa holder, or an undocumented immigrant with a pending claim — you have rights. The right to remain silent. The right to an attorney. The right not to sign documents you do not understand.
Powers Law Group represents clients across Texas and the United States in immigration detention cases, emergency proceedings, and situations where rights have been violated by federal enforcement. If you believe someone has been wrongfully detained or deported, contact us immediately. Time matters in these cases — and the window to act closes fast.
Sources
- Emiliano Tahui Gómez and Faith Bugenhagen, ‘They Didn’t Believe Me’: Austin Man Deported After Traffic Stop Says He Is a U.S. Citizen, Austin American-Statesman, April 25, 2026. https://www.statesman.com
- ProPublica, More Than 170 US Citizens Detained During Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, October 2025. https://www.propublica.org
- University of Texas School of Law, Professor Elissa Steglich — Immigration Law Research. https://law.utexas.edu
- American Immigration Council, 287(g) Agreements: State and Local Immigration Enforcement, 2024. https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org
- ACLU, Know Your Rights: What to Do If ICE Comes to Your Home or Stops You, 2025. https://www.aclu.org
- National Immigration Law Center, Due Process Rights in Immigration Detention, 2025. https://www.nilc.org
- The Washington Post, Despite Signaling Change, ICE Still Arrests Many Immigrants With No Record, April 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com
- Univision, Austin Man Deported Despite Claiming US Citizenship, April 2026. https://www.univision.com
- Powers Law Group, They Had Names: The 17 People Who Have Died in ICE Custody in 2026, April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
- Powers Law Group, ICE Is Telling Her the Cyst Doesn’t Exist. Her Attorney Says It’s the Size of a Tennis Ball., April 2026. https://www.rubypowerslaw.com
