René López said he still has nightmares about his three years in ICE custody.
“I don’t want anyone to have to go through this,” Lopez told Noticias Telemundo in an interview at his home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Nearly a decade ago, immigration officials argued that the citizenship Lopez acquired through his naturalized mother when he was a minor was invalid. A drug conviction as a young man put him on the path to deportation.
During those years, Lopez insisted he was a U.S. citizen when questioned by ICE officials, lawyers, judges and reporters.
“I’m from El Salvador and got permanent residency when I was 11 years old, and when my mother became a citizen, I was already 16, so I automatically got my mother’s citizenship. That’s the way it is,” he said.
According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website, derivative citizenship means that children under the age of 18 automatically acquire U.S. citizenship through the citizenship of their parents. In some cases, adopted children of U.S. citizens born abroad can also automatically obtain U.S. citizenship.
René López with wife Angélica Reyes and children in 2021. (Contributed by Angélica Reyes)
(Courtesy of Angelica Reyes)
Lopez was detained by ICE officials in January 2023 and is being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. He was not released until February 13 this year, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling that not only stopped his deportation but also reaffirmed his U.S. citizenship.
“The court said in its decision that he has been a U.S. citizen since 1998. That’s why they released him,” said Lopez’s attorney, Benjamin Osorio.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to Noticias Telemundo’s request for comment on Lopez’s case.
Why are U.S. citizens detained by ICE?
Lopez’s arrest was the final step in a long process in which he had to go to court to try to have his citizenship recognized.
Lopez came to the United States as a legal resident after his mother, a legal resident and single mother, completed the paperwork to bring him to the United States from El Salvador in the early 1990s. When he was 16, his mother became a naturalized U.S. citizen, giving him automatic derivative citizenship under Title 8, United States Code, Section 1432, then in effect.
At the age of 20, Lopez was convicted of drug crimes (in 2004 and 2005) and served seven years in prison. Homeland Security officials visited him while he was in prison and determined in 2009 that he had acquired U.S. citizenship through his mother.
“They came to visit me in 2009 and declared me a citizen,” Lopez told Noticias Telemundo in an interview last year while in detention.
After being released from prison in 2011, Lopez rebuilt his life: He finished high school, learned electrical work, started his own company, and spent more than a decade working, getting married, and raising children without any further legal trouble.
However, in 2016, the Department of Homeland Security changed its position, deeming him a legal resident rather than a citizen, and initiated deportation proceedings because of his previous drug convictions, according to court documents and Lopez’s attorneys.
Lopez said he can’t “take back the time he spent in detention” but is working to rebuild his business. (Courtesy of Angelica Reyes)
(Courtesy of Angelica Reyes)
From then until he was finally taken into immigration custody in 2023, Lopez and his attorneys tried to prove that he legally obtained U.S. citizenship through his single motherhood.
The government argued that the Salvadoran constitution eliminated the legal distinction between children born in and out of wedlock, meaning that obtaining citizenship from his mother was not enough.
“He has to prove that his father was also naturalized, but clearly his father never had a relationship with him,” said Charles Wheeler, senior attorney at the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
Lopez said that in 2023, “I went to work one day and there were about eight immigration agents waiting for me.” The agents told him that he was not a citizen and that he was still a legal resident with a “serious felony” and could now be deported.
ruling declaring him a citizen
Last month, the Fourth Circuit issued a ruling finding that Lopez met the requirements of the law governing derivative citizenship before the 2001 reform. The judges analyzed El Salvador’s laws on paternity and legalization, as well as Lopez’s family history, to determine whether his biological father “established paternity” in the required legal sense.
“They concluded that my father never established paternity and never made me his legitimate son, even though his name appears on my birth certificate,” Lopez explained. Essentially, the court agreed that his mother was his single parent and legal guardian, and therefore it was legal to obtain U.S. citizenship solely from her.
On March 13, 2025, Rene Lopez made a video call from the ICE detention facility in Bowling Green, Virginia. (Courtesy Angélica Reyes)
(Courtesy of Angelica Reyes)
Immigration attorney Enrique Espinoza recommends that people whose parents were naturalized or U.S. citizens by birth consult an attorney and, if possible, obtain official proof of citizenship, such as an N-600 certificate or a U.S. passport, before a misunderstanding turns into a crisis.
In fact, Espinoza said it’s not uncommon for people to acquire U.S. citizenship through their parents “and not know it — it does happen.”
“ICE should not be detaining U.S. citizens.”
In light of the recent court ruling, Lopez’s legal team is working to obtain all necessary proof of citizenship and seek some form of redress.
“We will sue the government. ICE should not be detaining American citizens,” said Osorio, Lopez’s attorney. After three years in prison, Lopez lost his electrician business.
“He lost his job. He lost a lot. We’re going to try to get his money back,” Osorio said.
“It cost me dearly; I lost everything. My family had to endure a very unpleasant experience because of my unjust arrest, even though they knew I was a U.S. citizen,” Lopez said.
Lopez said that while his legal team continues to work on his case, he is trying to return to a normal life and always carries a copy of the 4th Circuit’s decision in case police or federal agents arrest him again. His main goal is to rebuild his power company and resume working with the contractors who knew him before his arrest.
“I can’t get that time back — what’s lost is lost,” Lopez said. “Now I have to start over. I have many acquaintances who know that my dedication and honesty in my work are 100% guaranteed.”
During the long nights in detention, Lopez began writing songs about his legal situation and what he saw in the detention center. He wrote that his family kept him going as he battled the government and that “their love continues to await me.”
An earlier version of this story was first published in Noticias Telemundo.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com
