I don’t know if Americans realize how often ICE arrests US citizens, and how long those citizens can spend detained. I spoke to Davino Watson, who spent 3.5 years in a detention center. He was a citizen every minute of that time. If you get arrested by ICE, could you prove you’re a citizen? Often agents quickly correct their mistake. But sometimes they don’t:

If Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests you for an immigration-related offense, and you tell the agency you are a citizen, it might not release you. Citizenship isn’t something that you wear on your body. Maybe you pull an ID, a passport, or even a birth certificate, but agents frequently assume these are fake. In that case, you will be taken to a detention center run by a private prison company. You can tell the guards there that you’re a citizen, but they’ll likely respond with some version of “tell it to the judge.” Your immigration-court appearance could be weeks, or even months, away. You will wait behind bars. There’s no right to counsel in immigration court — if you can’t afford a lawyer, you’ll have to represent yourself. When you finally see the inside of a courtroom, it could be what ICE calls a “mass removal” hearing with dozens of other defendants. You won’t have a chance to talk to a judge.

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