'A nightmare': Man detained by ICE for more than 2 years claims he's a U.S. citizen

Mario René López is being held at an ICE facility in Virginia, though he says he obtained citizenship as a minor from his mom, who naturalized in 1998.

Mario René López says being locked up in an ICE detention center is a very hard experience since he can’t be with his family and conditions are tough, but above all, it's hard because, he insists, he's a U.S. citizen.

"I came to the United States when I was 12 years old, with a permanent residence because my mother was a [legal] resident and she put in the papers and went to pick me up in El Salvador," Lopez, 44, said in a call from the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. “When my mom became a citizen, I was a minor, so I automatically got citizenship derived from my mother, but for no reason I am now being detained.”

According to the Citizenship and Immigration Services website, derivative citizenship refers to the automatic acquisition of citizenship by children who are under 18 through the citizenship status of their parents, and, under certain circumstances, it applies to foreign-born adopted children of U.S. citizens.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Lopez in January 2023. He has since been held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green.

Angélica Reyes / via Noticias Telemundo‘He is also a citizen'Lopez’s ICE detention was the latest step in a long process in the courts to try to have his citizenship recognized. Born in El Salvador, Lopez entered the United States as a legal permanent resident in 1992. His mother naturalized in 1998, when he was 16, theoretically granting him automatic citizenship under 8 U.S. Code 1432, which was in effect at the time.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/man-detained-ice-claims-citizenship-rcna198012

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