By Jill Serjeant
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles man with mentalproblems, who spent three months lost in Mexico after beingdeported despite being a U.S. citizen, sued homeland securityand immigration officials on Wednesday.
Los Angeles-born Peter Guzman, 30, was deported to Tijuanain May 2007 after serving time in jail for trespassing. Hisfamily spent three months looking for him in hospitals, jails,shelters and morgues in the border town.
Guzman, described by his family as struggling with basicreading, writing and memory, survived by begging, washing inthe Tijuana river and sleeping outdoors, the lawsuit said.
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement put Peter Guzman on abus with $3 (1.50 pounds) in his pocket and put him out inTijuana," said his lawyer, Jim Brosnahan. "With no family orfriends in Mexico, he broke down and thought that his countryhad rejected him."
The California ICE office described Guzman's deportation asan exception in the U.S. effort to deal with an estimated 12million, mostly Latino, illegal immigrants thought to be livingin the United States.
The lawsuit, which named Department of Homeland SecuritySecretary Michael Chertoff and senior immigration officials,was filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
It alleges that Guzman's deportation was illegal, that hewas coerced into waiving his legal rights as a U.S. citizen,and that immigration officials discriminated against himbecause of his ethnicity.
ICE said in a statement that Guzman had repeatedly toldofficials he was born in Mexico and had signed a documentagreeing to voluntary return.
"This is a one-of-a-kind case. Since ICE was created, theagency's efforts have ensured that more than 1 millionimmigration violators have been removed or returned to theirhome countries," the ICE statement added.
Guzman was reunited with his family in August 2007 after hewas stopped by U.S. border agents while crossing back intoCalifornia.
In the past year, U.S. agents have stepped up deportationsand raids on suspected undocumented workers while efforts tooverhaul immigration policy and offer a path to legal statushave stalled in the U.S. Congress.
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Alan Elsner)
