Exiled American Sues CBP: Olivas v. Whitford

"Plaintiff-Petitioner (hereinafter, Plaintiff) Oscar Ivan Olivas is a 45-year-old natural-born U.S. citizen who Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials unlawfully exiled to Mexico almost three years ago.  Mr. Olivas has repeatedly attempted to avail himself of administrative remedies to end his exile, but those efforts have proven fruitless by no fault of his own. ... Mr. Olivas finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare.  CBP officials have told him both that he will have a hearing in front of a judge at some unknown date and that an order of removal has already been entered against him, but he has never received that hearing or been allowed to see the purported order of removal. Furthermore, CBP officials have told Mr. Olivas that if he returns to ask additional questions about his case, he will be arrested, detained for a period of time that will “not be brief,” and removed without seeing a judge.  Like Josef K. in The Trial, Mr. Olivas has been detained but does not know why, is unable to decipher the procedures of the tribunal before which he stands accused, and does not know what evidence was considered to support the unrevealed charges against him. ... The government’s exile of Mr. Olivas from the United States was and remains unlawful and unconstitutional on several grounds.  Judicial relief is necessary to ensure Mr. Olivas’s return to the United States as a citizen free from unlawful detention." - Olivas v. Whitford, filed June 12, 2014.