What happened to Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez is a warning for Black and Brown families everywhere
By Civitas
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez is 20 years old. He was born in Georgia. He’s a U.S. citizen. But right now, he’s locked up in a Florida jail, just because police didn’t believe he’s “really from here.”
Juan Carlos wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was just riding in a car on his way to work when police pulled them over. Even though he was just a passenger, they arrested him and said he was an “unauthorized alien.” His family brought his U.S. birth certificate to court to prove he’s a citizen. But they’re still holding him.
His mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, saw him on a video screen in court and burst into tears. “Where are you going to take him? He is from here,” she said in Spanish. “I felt so helpless.”
This is personal for Black and Brown families
People in Baltimore and other cities know all too well what this looks like. For decades, Black and Brown people have been stopped, searched, locked up, and even killed by police — not because they did anything wrong, but because of how they look.
What’s happening now is the same kind of injustice — but on a whole new level. This time, they’re not just locking people up. They’re talking about sending people away — to other countries. Forever.
Let that sink in: They arrested an American citizen, and there’s a chance they might try to deport him — send him to a place he’s never lived — just because someone assumed he didn’t belong.
This isn’t just racism. It’s tyranny.
This is a warning
If they can do this to Juan Carlos, they can do it to you. To your brother. Your cousin. Your son.
This is why we must watch this case closely. If they send him away, or even keep him locked up when they know he’s a U.S. citizen, that tells us exactly what’s here.
It tells us that citizenship won’t protect us if we’re Black or Brown.
It tells us we’re being targeted — not for what we do, but for who we are.
This is how we fight back
We must get organized. Not tomorrow. Now.
- Talk to your neighbors.
- Share this story.
- Go to meetings in your community.
- Support groups that fight for our rights like the ACLU, BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration), and local freedom fighters in Baltimore.
We have to protect each other. We have to stand up for people like Juan Carlos because today, it’s him. Tomorrow, it could be someone you love.
Final words
They said Juan Carlos didn’t belong here. But he was born here. He belongs here.
And so do we. This is our home. We will not be silent while they turn our people into targets — while they turn jails into deportation pipelines, and try to send us to places we’ve never even been.
We’ve fought police brutality. We’ve seen racial profiling. But this? This is an escalation. This is how concentration camps begin — not all at once, but one arrest at a time.
Baltimore, it’s past time to rise.
America, it’s time to wake up.
Civitas is a writer, legal researcher and advocate focused on human rights, race, and government accountability in the 21st century.