Michigan City Settles $190K Case After Marine Veteran Wrongly Detained by ICE

A Marine Veteran’s Worst Nightmare

Imagine serving your country and then suddenly facing deportation—despite being a U.S. citizen and a decorated Marine veteran. That is exactly what happened to Jilmar Ramos-Gomez in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In a story that’s stunned the city and sparked questions about law enforcement practices, Ramos-Gomez was wrongfully handed over to immigration authorities even though he had clear proof of citizenship.

Jilmar grew up in Grand Rapids and spent nearly three years in the Marine Corps, including time stationed abroad. Like many veterans, coming back home wasn’t easy. After returning in 2014, Ramos-Gomez struggled with severe post-traumatic stress disorder. One episode pushed him into crisis on November 21, 2018, when he inadvertently set off alarms by wandering onto a hospital helipad and pulling a fire alarm. Police arrived and arrested him for trespassing. It was supposed to be a routine case, but things took a troubling path.

How a Simple Arrest Spiraled Into ICE Custody

When authorities at Grand Rapids police headquarters booked Ramos-Gomez, he handed over a REAL ID-compliant Michigan driver’s license—proof that he was both a Michigan resident and a U.S. citizen. He also identified himself as a Marine veteran, and his family was known in the community. Yet, instead of arranging for mental health care or releasing him on bail, officers notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE quickly stepped in, misidentifying him as a Guatemalan national, and took him for deportation proceedings.

Over just three days, Ramos-Gomez went from a jail cell to ICE custody, completely unaware of how things went so wrong. His family and his legal counsel, Miriam Aukerman from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, acted fast. Within those 72 hours, they scrambled to pull together documents proving his citizenship before ICE could deport him. Eventually, with proof in hand, he was released—but only after the ordeal he never should have faced in the first place.

This incident raised immediate eyebrows among civil rights advocates. The ACLU flagged what looked like a textbook case of wrongful detention—and more disturbingly, potential racial profiling. Ramos-Gomez is Latino, and the ACLU argued that assumptions about his citizenship were based more on appearance and language than any real evidence. ICE, for its part, claimed it simply acted on “good faith” based on the information available, but the fact remains: all the documentation was there, and no one stopped to double-check it.

The fallout was swift. The Grand Rapids City Commission agreed to pay Ramos-Gomez $190,000 to resolve the case. In the settlement, city officials didn’t contest the wrongful detention. Their decision is meant to close one painful chapter for Ramos-Gomez, but big questions still linger—especially around how everyday policing collaborates with immigration authorities, and how quickly personal freedoms can unravel without proper safeguards. Civil rights groups are now using this story to call for tighter rules and better training, so no one else ends up in a similar nightmare.