Jason Martin - Immigration Enforcement Agent, ICE
Phoenix, AZ 85004
Jason Martin was the ICE Immigration Enforcement Agent (IEA) who was assigned to interrogate and process me when ICE first took custody of me on 2007-09-25 in Phoenix, AZ.
Martin spent the entire day desparately trying to trick or coerce me into "admitting" I was a foreign national. But I didn't. I told him I was born in the US and I'm a US citizen.
For a while, during the interrogation, Martin brought in four or five other IEAs to help him with the interrogation. They all rapidly threw questions at me, trying to trip me up. But still, it didn't work.
After hours of that high-pressure interrogation, and having accomplished absolutely nothimg, Martin's supervisor Kristine Brisson was brought in to try to intimidate me with the fact that she was a supervisor. But again, they weren't able to catch me in a lie or get me to admit I was an alien.
Also, during that interrogation, Martin was frantically searching the mountain of information and records ICE supposedly had access to, trying to find any evidence to support their allegation I was an alien. He failed to find a single such record!
The I-213; No Evidence of Alienage
According to the I-213 (Record of Deportable/Inadmissible Alien), prepared by Martin on that day, the only suggestion I was an alien, and the sole basis for his insistence I was, was that an NCIC record check for the name "Richard Riess" stated "place of birth to be Canada" I-213, 2007-09-25.
But that's not evidence I was an alien; that just means some law enforcement officer, at some point, entered that into their computer which then got uploaded to the FBI's NCIC system. It's a reason to suspect the person might be an alien, but it is not evidence sufficient to arrest and detain the person.
And consider that that NCIC report was not included with the arresting and charging documents. There is no evidence that Martin actually did find any information about me in NCIC. For all anyone knows, HE may have been the one to enter place of birth as "Canada" following my arrest by ICE.
In the I-213, Martin also claimed that while I was in MCSO custody, an interview conducted by MCSO Officer Ryan Paschke states I was born in Sudburry, Ontario, Canada. But again, no evidence to support that that actually happened. No booking record from the MCSO; no record, declaration, or statement from Paschke. And moreover, notice Martin doesn't claim I stated that to Paschke, he claims the interview stated it. Which, of course, makes absolutely no sense. By phrasing it that way, Paschke absolves himself of any responsibility for making a false claim.
At the end of the day, even though they hadn't established I was an alien, ICE loaded me onto a big, ugly, DHS bus to be shipped off to a detention facility 70 miles from Phoenix.