Coral Springs FL August 7,2026 :
America is supposed to be a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.
But what happens when the government turns that principle upside down?
Two of my employees were arrested at Miami International Airport while traveling to do their jobs. Based on the documentation available to us, they had authorization to live and work in the United States. Yet they were taken into immigration custody anyway.
Their names are Carlos and his son. They are Venezuelan.
They weren’t hiding. They weren’t fleeing the country. They weren’t working under the table.
They were at the airport preparing to board a flight to Alabama for a public-safety telecommunications installation.
And then ICE took them into custody.
A Net Without a Filter
The immigration-enforcement system increasingly resembles a giant fishing net.
The government casts the net looking for people it believes should be removed from the country. But a net doesn’t necessarily distinguish between the fish it was intended to catch and everything else swimming alongside them.
When that happens, the government’s responsibility should be simple: check the facts and release the people who have a legal right to be here.
Instead, people can find themselves detained while they attempt to prove something that the government should have established before taking away their freedom.
That is guilty until proven innocent.
These Men Were Working for Us Legally
Carlos and his son came to the United States from Venezuela and obtained Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, and employment authorization.
Our company followed the federal employment-verification requirements. We had documentation establishing their authorization to work.
These weren’t employees operating somewhere in the shadows.
They Had Their Papers
This is where their case becomes particularly disturbing.
Carlos and his son weren’t arrested because they couldn’t produce documentation.
They had their documentation with them.
Yet they were detained anyway.
According to what they told us, ICE presented them with an extraordinary choice: accept money and transportation to Venezuela, or remain incarcerated and wait for an immigration judge to determine whether they could stay in the United States.
They chose jail.
Think about that.
They believed strongly enough in their right to remain in this country that they chose imprisonment rather than accepting money to leave.
Now they must spend thousands of dollars on attorneys simply to obtain a hearing and prove their case.
“Papers, Please”
There is an uncomfortable historical echo here that Americans should not simply dismiss because the comparison makes us uncomfortable.
In Nazi Germany and occupied Europe, authorities demanded identification papers from people traveling, working and simply going about their lives. The Gestapo and other authorities operated within a system in which detention could precede meaningful due process, with ultimately horrific consequences.
America in 2026 is not Nazi Germany, and an immigration detention center is not Auschwitz.
That distinction matters.
But history doesn’t become irrelevant simply because today’s circumstances aren’t identical to history’s worst endpoint.
The lesson is about what happens when a government becomes comfortable detaining people first and sorting out their legal rights later.
“Papers, please.”
For generations, Americans associated those words with authoritarian governments.
Yet today, travelers inside the United States can encounter immigration enforcement at airports and transportation facilities and find themselves forced to establish their right to remain here.
And even having the papers may not be enough.
Carlos and his son had theirs.
What About American Citizens?
This should concern Americans regardless of their position on illegal immigration.
A government empowered to arrest first and verify identity and legal status afterward will inevitably make mistakes.
The consequences aren’t theoretical when the person being detained has a job, a mortgage or rent payment, children, employees, customers or a family depending upon him.
Liberty cannot depend upon how quickly someone can locate an immigration attorney or produce a document that satisfies the particular officer standing in front of him.
And American citizens should not have to carry passports while traveling domestically because they fear that their appearance, accent or surname could result in their citizenship being questioned.
That isn’t the America we should accept.
Immigration Enforcement Is Necessary. So Is Due Process.
I am not arguing that the United States should have no immigration enforcement.
A sovereign country has both the authority and the responsibility to enforce its borders and immigration laws.
If someone has entered illegally and has exhausted the legal process available to him, the government has the authority to enforce the law.
But there is an enormous difference between enforcing immigration law and detaining people without adequately establishing whether they are actually subject to removal.
Due process isn’t an inconvenience standing in the way of immigration enforcement.
Due process is one of the things that distinguishes American law enforcement from the authoritarian systems we have condemned throughout our history.
We were told that immigration enforcement would target dangerous criminals and people unlawfully in the country.
So what happens when the person being handcuffed is an employee heading to a legitimate telecommunications job — and carrying documents establishing his authorization to be here?
Someone needs to answer that question.
The Price of Proving Your Innocence
Carlos and his son were initially told that their hearing might not occur until the end of August.
Their hearing has now been moved to August 12.
Meanwhile, they remain detained and have had to retain an attorney at a cost of approximately $25,000.
Consider what that means.
Even if a judge ultimately agrees with them, who gives them those weeks of their lives back?
Who reimburses their legal bills?
And who compensates their families for what they have endured?
Freedom isn’t meaningful if the government can take it away first and require you to spend $25,000 proving that it shouldn’t have taken it.
This isn’t fundamentally a Republican question or a Democratic question.
It is an American question.
How much power are we willing to give the government to detain people before establishing that the government has the right person?
History teaches us that government power is easiest to expand when the public believes it will only be used against somebody else.
Illegal immigrants.
Foreigners.
People with accents.
People who don’t look like us.
Until one day the person caught in the net is your employee.
Your neighbor.
Your friend.
Or an American citizen.
America was built around a radically different proposition:
The government must answer to the individual — not the individual to the government.
Carlos and his son will have their opportunity to make their case before a judge.
But they should never have had to sit in jail for weeks and spend tens of thousands of dollars simply to get that opportunity.
That isn’t innocent until proven guilty.
It is guilty until proven innocent.
And whatever your politics, that should concern every American.
Latest Status of Carlos and son : Even though they were told by ICE that they had two choice, take the money and go back to Venezuela or go to jail and await a judge which can take several months, they chose to stay in this country in prison. There hearing date was supposed to be end of August. It has been changed to August 12. Meanwhile they needed to hire an attorney that cost them about $25,000. On the top right Coralsprings.com is a GOFundMe link if you want to help out.
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