As Brian Bukle neared the end of his sentence in a California jail, he was hopeful. It was June 2020, and he was excited to be released in time to spend Father's Day with his son after serving two years. "Instead, I came this close to being deported and losing everything, a nightmare that has stayed with me to this day," Bukle said last year.
Rather than being released to his family, Bukle became ensnared in deportation proceedings and was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 36 days, according to a lawsuit filed last November in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. But at no point during the legal ordeal was Bukle deportable, since he's been a U.S. citizen for over 50 years. The lawsuit alleged that ICE officials "failed to take required steps to verify Mr. Bukle's citizenship status, resulting in his wrongful arrest and detention by ICE for over a month."
