Cases (and the resulting lawsuits) for wrongful deportation of U.S. citizens rising.

Photo used under Creative Commons from swanksalot.

The July 27, 2009 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that U.S. citizens are being wrongfully deported by the Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) Service. "When ICE came and detained me, I told the officer I was a citizen," said Ramirez Lopez, 25. "They told me they didn't want to hear it, that I was going to get deported." An ICE officer was reported as saying, "There is no national database (of citizens)," she said. "So we're reliant on the person to provide clear and convincing evidence that they are a citizen."

Whoa! Since when have allowed the government to shift the burden of proof to the accused? Even in deportation proceedings, the burden is on the government to prove that the alien is deportable by "clear and convincing" evidence. Not the other way around.

There is another disturbing trend. See if you can find it in the list of U.S. citizens cited in the article as having been wrongfully deported: Ramirez Lopez, Pedro Guzman, and Rennison Castillo.