Mario René López says being locked up in an ICE detention center is a very hard experience since he can’t be with his family and conditions are tough, but above all, it's hard because, he insists, he's a U.S. citizen.
"I came to the United States when I was 12 years old, with a permanent residence because my mother was a [legal] resident and she put in the papers and went to pick me up in El Salvador," Lopez, 44, said in a call from the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. “When my mom became a citizen, I was a minor, so I automatically got citizenship derived from my mother, but for no reason I am now being detained.”
According to the Citizenship and Immigration Services website, derivative citizenship refers to the automatic acquisition of citizenship by children who are under 18 through the citizenship status of their parents, and, under certain circumstances, it applies to foreign-born adopted children of U.S. citizens.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials detained Lopez in January 2023. He has since been held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green.
‘He is also a citizen'
Lopez’s ICE detention was the latest step in a long process in the courts to try to have his citizenship recognized. Born in El Salvador, Lopez entered the United States as a legal permanent resident in 1992. His mother naturalized in 1998, when he was 16, theoretically granting him automatic citizenship under 8 U.S. Code 1432, which was in effect at the time.
Now the legal framework for that type of citizenship is the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which says the general requirements for eligibility are that a person must be the child of a parent who is a natural born or a naturalized U.S. citizen (including an adoptive parent) and must be under age 18 and a lawful permanent resident. In addition, the child must reside in the United States “in the lawful and physical custody of the U.S. citizen parent.”
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Floribel Lopez, 62, Lopez’s mother, said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo that that applies to her son.
"I gave him the papers when I became a citizen. He is also a citizen because I did it when he was a minor," she said. "I don’t know why he's being detained."
"We left El Salvador because of the guerrilla problem, because they were killing a lot of people. That’s why we came here," Floribel Lopez said. The U.N.-backed Truth Commission report documented that the Salvadoran civil war, which lasted from 1979 to 1992, left more than 75,000 people dead and thousands missing.
At age 20, Lopez was convicted of drug offenses (in 2004 and 2005) and served a seven-year prison sentence. According to legal documents in the case, during his time in prison he was visited by officials from the Department of Homeland Security, who in 2009 determined that he had obtained U.S. citizenship from his mother under the law at the time.
However, in 2016, according to court papers and Lopez’s attorney, DHS changed its position, deemed him a legal resident but not a citizen and initiated removal proceedings because of his drug conviction.
"In 2016, officials changed their mind and put him in deportation proceedings. We’ve been with this case for about eight years, and we’re still fighting the same citizenship issue," said Benjamin Osorio, Lopez’s lawyer. "We have the proof that he's a citizen because we have his birth certificate, the residency, his mother’s citizenship certificate, which she did before he turned 18, and his parents were never married. All of that works to prove that he’s an American."
According to 8 USC 1432, which was in effect when Lopez filed his case, children of naturalized U.S. citizens were entitled to derivative citizenship when, among other things, both parents were naturalized, the parent who had legal custody of the child was naturalized (in cases where there was a legal separation of the parents), or when only the mother was naturalized "if the child was born out of wedlock and the paternity of the child has not been established by legitimation." The latter is the case for Lopez, as stated by his lawyer and his mother.
"I was never married to the father of my children. Mario has no contact with him and never has. I have two children, and the father was never responsible for them, nor did he acknowledge them," Lopez's mother said.
But according to legal documents in the case, prosecutors argue that the Salvadoran Constitution changed in 1983, eliminating legal distinctions between children born in or out of wedlock. According to the prosecution, that "legitimized" Lopez (as not being born out of wedlock) before his mother was naturalized, making him ineligible for derivative citizenship.
"This case is a bit complicated because the government is asking to study the law in El Salvador to determine whether or not he was, in fact, legitimized. And the irony is that, if it is determined that he was legitimized by the change in the law in that country, then he would have to prove that his father was also naturalized, but apparently his father never had a relationship with him," said Charles Wheeler, a senior attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
"It’s really unfortunate, because he is, for all intents and purposes, a citizen of the United States, considers this country his home and has lived here most of his life. He no longer has any real connection to El Salvador. Unfortunately, because the government does not accept his citizenship, he could be deported because of his prior criminal convictions," Wheeler said.
Lopez said that he counts the time he has been locked up and that it has already been two years and two months. “I made mistakes when I was young, but that helped me change. I’m not that person anymore. I went out to work, I have my registered electrician’s license, and now this happened to me. I was on the street for 12 years without any problems, doing the right things,” he said.
DHS and ICE did not respond to Noticias Telemundo’s requests for information about Lopez’s case and the change in the determination about his citizenship in 2016.
Lopez’s case illustrates the challenges faced by many people who are beneficiaries of derivative citizenship.
"Because of both legal and procedural barriers, it can be extremely difficult for people to obtain derivative citizenship, even with the help of an attorney," Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute, told Noticias Telemundo. "In fact, in some cases, that can result in people being stateless, meaning they don’t have a citizenship."
Lopez’s attorney filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his detention on the grounds that he is a U.S. citizen; his case is before the 4th U.S. Court of Appeals, and a ruling is expected later this year.
In the meantime, because the government does not consider him a citizen, Osorio filed motions to grant Lopez protection under the Convention Against Torture, a measure that prevents deportation to a country where a person faces a real risk of torture. The courts have ruled in Lopez’s favor in that case.
Lopez’s attorney said that since he won on the Convention Against Torture, "they are looking for another country to see if they can deport him somewhere other than El Salvador."
"What we fear is that, because of his background, they could send him to Honduras or to Mexico," Osorio said. "That’s another reason to keep fighting for citizenship.”
'It's been traumatic'
Angelica Reyes, 40, Lopez’s wife, says she remembers the day of her husband's detention very well. She woke up in the morning and noticed that her husband’s truck was still parked, as if he hadn’t left for work at his electrical company. "I got worried and started calling some friends and the guys who worked with him, but no one knew anything. After two or three hours, I was able to get a call from him telling me that he had been detained by ICE," she said in an interview.
"It has been very traumatic because, from one day to the next, I was left alone with my children. It’s a nightmare, and economically it’s not easy, either."
There is a positive precedent in Lopez’s case, Flores-Torres v. Holder, a 2009 case decided by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. In that case, Herbert Flores-Torres, who was also born in El Salvador and was detained by ICE pending removal, successfully established his derivative U.S. citizenship claim.
The court found that the fact that Flores-Torres’ father never married his mother was "sufficient" to determine that he qualified for derivative citizenship.
Derivative citizenship has become an important pathway to citizenship for thousands of children of immigrants who naturalize annually, helping ensure family unity in the U.S. immigration system.
Noticias Telemundo analyzed official USCIS figures for fiscal years 2021 to 2024 that show the processing of N-600 forms, which people use to apply for derivative citizenship through their parents.
In that period, the agency received 255,126 applications and 230,193 were approved — an approval rate of 91.3%.
"If your parents are U.S. citizens at the time of your birth abroad, or if at least one of them becomes a citizen afterwards, you have access to derivative citizenship. It’s a right, and that law hasn’t changed in about 25 years, and it was passed by Congress,” Wheeler said.
Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, where Lopez is being held, drew media attention in 2023 when an inspection by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General revealed systemic failures in health services, food handling and the recording and processing of detainee complaints.
“This has caused me too much stress and worries for my family. This is getting too crowded, there are already people who have to sleep on the floor, and I think that’s unfair,” Lopez said.
Recent DHS figures show that immigration detention centers are at capacity, housing 47,600 people nationwide.
Noticias Telemundo asked ICE and DHS what measures were implemented at the facility after inspection report but did not receive a response. After the 2023 inspection, it was revealed that ICE had acknowledged two of the office’s eight recommendations: observations about the handling of inmate food and the processing of grievances.
"This has been a trauma for my six children, my wife, my mother and my entire family. I was doing things right," Lopez said. "Even the judge said I am a reformed person, I am not a danger to society. This is a nightmare."
An earlier version of this story was first published on Noticias Telemundo.
