“Wait here while I check your information. Everything will be alright.” 

That’s what Mario Reyes Rodas’ attorney said the federal immigration officer told his client the morning of Aug. 27 during a traffic stop along Interstate 20 in Rankin County. The Morton resident provided a current driver’s license and work authorization card that has allowed him to work as a landscaper while he sought permanent residence. 

Then came the questions. 

Where are you from? Mexico, Reyes Rodas answered. Do you have a visa or authorization to be in the country? No, the man replied, though he had been trying to obtain permanent residency for years. 

That was enough information for him to be detained, even though he has no criminal record. 

Reyes Rodas left his car on the side of the road as he was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He was taken to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Pearl to be processed and then to the Madison County Detention Center. Within a week, he was taken to River Correctional Center, an ICE facility in Ferriday, Louisiana.

“He hasn’t seen freedom since then,” said Jeremy Litton, who is representing Reyes Rodas in an ongoing immigration case. 

Reyes Rodas was charged with the civil violation of entry into the country without authorization, his attorney said. 

The 40-year-old father of two was not given a reason for his detainment, his attorney said, nor was there documentation of a warrant to arrest or detain him. 

Litton said his client also was not stopped that day under suspicion of violating a state law, such as speeding. 

Why, then, Litton wondered, was Reyes Rodas detained. A week and a half later came a potential answer. 

On Sept. 8, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal immigration officers can stop people without reasonable suspicion based on their apparent race or ethnicity, if they speak in Spanish or accented English, if they are in a place where undocumented immigrants are known to gather and if they work in specific jobs that undocumented people are known to work. 

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the Sept. 8 majority order that multiple considerations taken together “can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States.” 

In her dissent, Justice Sonya Sotomayor argued the Trump administration has declared all Latinos regardless of U.S. citizenship who fit those criteria “are fair game to be seized at any time.” 

Reyes Rodas isn’t the only person detained who doesn’t have a criminal background. 

As of September, 70% of all people held in immigration detention centers around the country have no criminal convictions, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse immigration data by Syracuse University. Of those with criminal convictions, many committed minor offenses such as traffic violations. 

A spokesperson from Customs and Border Protection confirmed the detention of Reyes Rodas and that he was turned over to Immigration and Custom Enforcement for removal processing. An ICE spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. 

Federal immigration agents have conducted immigration enforcement along I-20, including in March and May that resulted in at least 70 arrests and seizure of firearms and ammunition.  

Emmanuel Reyes, the eldest American-born son of Reyes Rodas, remembers finishing work on Aug. 27 when his girlfriend called. 

Don’t worry, she told him, but immigration officers picked up your father. Reyes said the news immediately sent him into a panic. 

Reyes said his father is a loving man of faith who has supported him and his 17-year-old brother, coming to every game, meet and match for the multi-sport athletes. 

His parents came to America 20 years ago to provide support for their family members in Mexico, and they stayed to give their sons a better life. Reyes said he and his brother have grown up aware of their U.S. citizenship and looked for ways to help their parents, including how to help them gain legal status. 

“My dad was trying to live for what he came here for, the American dream,” Reyes said. “ … They wanted to give us opportunities. It’s better here.”

Litton has represented Reyes Rodas since 2019, not long after he was one of more than 600 mostly Latino workers detained in raids at chicken processing plants in central Mississippi. 

That year, he filed an application requesting the cancellation of removal proceedings against Reyes Rodas, which is a defense available to those facing deportation who meet certain requirements, including a clean criminal record, continuous presence in the country for at least 10 years and potential hardship to his U.S. citizenship children if he were deported. 

Litton said the 42B application is a pathway to a green card: permanent residency that allows people to live and work in the United States.   

As they waited for the application to be processed, Litton said Reyes Rodas applied and received authorization to work, which is valid through 2029. That document enabled him to get a Mississippi driver’s license.  

It took several years for Reyes Rodas to be issued notice to appear in immigration court to be able to file the 42B application. His first court date scheduled in 2021 was delayed several times, Litton said. 

By 2023 as they prepared for the hearing, Litton looked up the case and found it was gone, which he said is something that has happened in a handful of other cases relating to the poultry raids. 

Reyes Rodas had a court date scheduled for Tuesday with the LaSalle Immigration Court in Jena, Louisiana. But like his earlier case, the date disappeared off the court calendar, Litton said he learned Friday afternoon. 

As a result, Litton plans to request a bond hearing to argue that Reyes Rodas had valid work authorization and a pending immigration application when he was detained and mention the administrative challenges with his case.  

However, Reyes Rodas may not be able to receive it in light of a recent Board of Immigration Appeals decision stating that immigration judges lack the authority to approve or hear bond requests for those already in the country without authorization. 

Litton said it’s “indefinite detention” for anyone, regardless of when they entered the country.