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US-born high school student detained for weeks by CBP

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A Dallas-born U.S. citizen spent 23 days in federal custody because his own government couldn’t decide if he was American.

Francisco Erwin Galicia, an 18-year-old high school student from Edinburg, Texas, walked out of an ICE detention facility on Tuesday, July 23, after being held for more than three weeks despite carrying a Texas state ID, a Social Security card and a birth certificate proving he was born in Dallas. Customs and Border Patrol officers stopped him at an inland checkpoint in Falfurrias while he was on his way to a college soccer scouting camp, and they never let him go. He told CNN’s Nick Valencia he was kept in conditions he described as inhumane, sleeping on concrete floors and losing more than 20 pounds before national media attention finally pushed the case to a resolution.

• Galicia was detained June 27 at the Falfurrias checkpoint while traveling with his undocumented 17-year-old brother, Marlon, and friends to a soccer camp at Ranger College; Marlon accepted voluntary deportation after two days while Francisco stayed locked up.
• CBP doubted his Texas ID, Social Security card and birth certificate because his mother, Sanjuana Galicia, had once obtained a Mexican tourist visa in his name that mistakenly listed Mexico as his birthplace.
• He spent roughly three weeks in CBP custody before being moved to the ICE South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, and says he was held with 60 to 70 men, denied showers, and given no phone calls for weeks.

A Routine Checkpoint Stop That Wouldn’t End

Galicia’s ordeal started with a stop that thousands of drivers pass through without incident. The Border Patrol checkpoint outside Falfurrias, Texas, sits well inland from the border, and officers there are used to sorting through mixed-status groups of travelers. When Galicia produced his documents, agents decided they looked fake. His brother Marlon, who is undocumented, agreed to voluntary deportation within two days specifically so he could reach their mother and tell her what was happening. Francisco had no such option — he had nothing to sign away because he was, in fact, a U.S. citizen with the paperwork to prove it.

The Paperwork Confusion Behind the Detention

The case turned on a single contradictory document. Years earlier, Sanjuana Galicia, who is undocumented, had taken out a Mexican tourist visa in her son’s name while he was a minor, and that visa erroneously listed his birthplace as Mexico. That one clerical mismatch was enough for CBP to treat a Dallas-born teenager as a possible fraud case, even against a valid state ID, Social Security card and wallet-sized birth certificate. In a joint statement, CBP and ICE defended the extended review, saying conflicting identity records and multiple birth certificates require thorough verification before release.

Weeks Inside CBP Custody

Galicia described the holding conditions to reporters, including Valencia and local Dallas stations, in blunt terms. He said he was packed into an overcrowded room with 60 to 70 other men, slept on a concrete floor under a foil blanket, wasn’t allowed to shower or brush his teeth, and couldn’t make a phone call for weeks. By the time he was transferred from CBP custody to the ICE South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, he had lost more than 20 pounds.

He was denied showers, wasn’t allowed to brush his teeth, and went weeks without a phone call — all while holding a Texas ID and a Dallas birth certificate.

Release Came Fast Once the Story Broke

Galicia’s attorney, Claudia Galan, is credited with turning the case around by bringing it to national media, and once outlets picked it up, the release moved quickly. He was let go from federal custody on July 23, after roughly 23 to 26 days in detention depending on the count used. The episode adds to a string of stories this year about how U.S. immigration enforcement is funded and executed at scale, a subject covered in reporting on the $340 million spent flying detainees around the country, and it’s the kind of case that keeps landing in front of lawmakers and agencies covered under U.S. news.

Galicia says he wants to finish high school and get back to soccer — the same trip to the Ranger College scouting camp that got interrupted at the Falfurrias checkpoint back on June 27. CBP and ICE haven’t said whether the mismatched Mexican visa record will be corrected or purged so this doesn’t happen to him — or his mother’s paperwork — again.