Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez sits at a Wendy’s on April 17, 2025, near the Leon County jail, where he has been detained for more than 24 hours.
The federal government is blaming a US citizen for being arrested during a traffic stop in Leon County last week under a state immigration legislation that was temporarily suspended.
According to a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security, Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a 20-year-old Georgia native, was detained on Wednesday after telling a Florida Highway Patrol trooper that he was in the country illegally.
“Immediately after learning the individual was a United States citizen, he was released,” a DHS senior official said in a statement Monday. “When individuals admit to committing a crime, like entering the country illegally, they will of course be detained while officers investigate.”
Following a traffic stop, the trooper charged Lopez-Gomez with illegally entering the state as a “unauthorized alien,” citing a new state legislation that a federal judge temporarily halted on April 4. Lopez-Gomez, who was released from Leon County prison Thursday evening, claims he told the trooper he was a U.S. citizen born in Georgia and handed him his Social Security card and Georgia ID, which fulfill federal security criteria under the REAL ID Act of 2005.
The case received global attention after Florida Phoenix reported it on Thursday.
According to the arrest report, Lopez-Gomez admitted to being in the country illegally and having entered Florida illegally, but he turned up his ID. However, the police report makes no mention of the social security card. According to the report, the trooper pulled over the car on Wednesday morning because the driver was going 78 mph in a 65 mph zone. Lopez-Gomez was a passenger in a car with two people traveling from Cairo, Georgia, to Tallahassee for a flooring job.
Amilcar Sales-Lopez, a family member of the driver and the crew’s boss, claimed he arrived at the scene on U.S. Highway 319 after the guys contacted him while being pulled over. Sales-Lopez told the two troopers that Lopez-Gomez was a US citizen but needed to surrender his Florida driver’s license first, according to a phone interview with Florida Phoenix.
“He said I had to verify who I was or they would arrest me,” Sales-Lopez explained in Spanish.
“They wanted to intimidate me,” he explained.
The arrest report does not state that Sales-Lopez was present during the arrest.
The 20-year-old’s mother informed the Phoenix that his first language is Tzotzil, a Mayan language. He lived in Mexico from the time he was one year old until four years ago, when he returned to Georgia.
The Phoenix has asked for video footage of the arrest from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. A department official told the Phoenix on Friday that Lopez-Gomez had stated that he was in the country illegally and had a federal detainer issued against him.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer, requesting that Lopez-Gomez be held for 48 hours following his detention. A Leon County judge cited the ICE hold as the reason she lacked authority to release Lopez-Gomez, even though she found no probable cause for the arrest after scrutinizing the Georgia birth certificate and Social Security card his mom submitted to court.
According to the ICE hold, DHS decided that Lopez-Gomez might be deported based on biometric confirmation of his identity, statements made to an immigration official, or “reliable evidence.”
When the Phoenix questioned DHS if the arresting trooper had federal authorization to function as an immigration agent, the agency did not respond. Approximately 1,400 troopers have completed 40 hours of training to question and arrest persons they believe are in the country illegally.
Although Attorney General James Uthmeier claims that the federal prohibition on law enforcement, SB 4C, does not apply to law enforcement, he sent a memo to FHP, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, police chiefs, and sheriffs on Friday stating that they should not arrest or detain anyone under the suspended law.
U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams has extended her ban on enforcing Florida’s immigration statute until April 29.