Lyttle v. United States

Mark Daniel Lyttle is an American citizen who was wrongfully deported to Mexico in 2008. ICE proceeded with deportation despite multiple inconsistencies in his case. Lyttle was then wrongfully deported to Mexico by Immigration Judge William Cassidy during a mass deportation hearing in 2008. Despite allegedly telling Cassidy twice about his U.S. citizenship, Lyttle was deported to Mexico. Lyttle sued the federal government for racial discrimination and constitutional rights violations. Lyttle received a $175,000 settlement from the federal government after a federal district court in Georgia ruled in his favor in 2012. ==Impact and significance==

Lyttle's case is cited by experts as an example of how weak legal procedural guarantees and difficulties in proving citizenship can lead to mistaken immigration arrests and deportations of American citizens. According to research by Northwestern University political science professor Jacqueline Stevens, who studied approximately 8,000 cases at two immigration detention facilities, about 1% of detainees were later released after being confirmed as U.S. citizens. These citizens faced detention periods ranging from one week to four years before their release. The New Yorker argued that Lyttle's ordeal may have been prevented if the Justice Department's 2013 policy of providing lawyers to mentally disabled defendants in deportation cases had been in place when his case occurred. This policy change was later incorporated into the Gang of Eight's Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013, which proposed providing legal representation to unaccompanied children and mentally disabled individuals in immigration court. == References ==