DHS Threatens U.S.-Born Immigration Attorney: ‘It Is Time For You To Leave’

An American citizen who received an email from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security telling him to leave the United States “immediately” says he believes he’s being singled out for his work as an immigrants’ rights advocate.

Aldo Martinez Gomez says he received an email from DHS on April 10 threatening him with “criminal prosecution, civil fines, and penalties” if he didn’t leave the country within seven days.

“It is time for you to leave the United States,” the letter begins.

“I was taken aback,” he told the hosts of “You Don’t Even Like This Show,” a podcast. “Like, I was born on this side, dude. How are you sending this to me?”

Martinez Gomez was born in San Diego County and is a U.S. citizen. He works for a nonprofit as an accredited representative, defending immigrants in the courtroom.

Every day he goes to work, he says, he invariably is around Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. And even though he carries a passport card on him at all times, he said he doesn’t trust ICE officers won’t “accidentally” lose it.

“If ICE gets me, I don’t think it’s going to matter either way,” he said. “I carry my border passport card with me. What’s to say they don’t toss it.”

He said he’s been speaking to the media, including KTLA and San Diego’s KGTV, because he wants to leave a paper trail they can’t erase.

A senior DHS official told HuffPost that it sent the notifications to the email addresses it has on file for immigrants. As such, “Notices may have been sent to unintended recipients.”

Martinez Gomez isn’t buying that explanation. Given the numerous other immigration attorneys who received the email, he thinks it’s a deliberate intimidation tactic. Especially since Trump says he wants to send U.S. citizens to El Salvador.

“I’m not seeking fame or attention, I just want to bring light to this issue because I’m not trying to be one of the government’s mistakes,” he told KTLA.

One such mistake is the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant living in Maryland that the Trump administration admits was mistakenly sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador, yet refuses to bring him back in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court order.

Martinez Gomez remains undeterred.

“I’m still going to represent my clients,” he told the podcast. “I’m still going to advocate for ― not just immigrant rights, but everyone’s rights. Because the Constitution covers us all.”

Other U.S. citizens also received the threatening email this month, including a U.S.-born physician from Connecticut who said she has “no idea” how she ended up on DHS’s radar, and a Massachusetts-born immigration attorney.