Brian Jose Morales Garcia was born in Denver. He is 25. He is a U.S. citizen.

In April, a state trooper pulled him over near Fredericksburg. Gillespie County deputies came too. Morales does not speak English.

He told them he was born here. He said his birth papers were at home. He said he had his Social Security card. Nobody let him show it.

He sat in a cell for five days. He was never charged with a crime.

Then agents made him an offer. Sign the removal papers, or face a fraud charge. They said that charge could mean five years in prison. He signed.

On April 7, they dropped him in Mexico.

He stayed there about four months. His lawyer kept fighting. Last Sunday the federal government let him come home. His lawyer picked him up in Laredo.

"Am I supposed to just accept that if I get pulled over again, it'll be the same thing?" Morales said.

Homeland Security tells it another way. The agency said its records showed he was here illegally. It said he told them he was a Mexican who came in illegally. Morales holds papers from both countries.

His lawyer is Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch. She does not buy it.

She said the feds are "willing to racially profile, detain and deport U.S. citizens."

Here is why this matters in the Valley.

That stop was legal because of a deal called 287(g). It is a contract. A local police force signs it with ICE. Then those local cops get to do some of ICE's work.

There are three kinds. In one, jail staff hold people longer so ICE can come get them. In another, local officers serve ICE warrants. The third one is the big one. It is called the task force model. It lets a regular cop ask you about your papers on a normal traffic stop.

That is the kind that caught Morales.

In January 2025, only 28 Texas agencies had a deal with ICE. Today 432 agencies hold 514 deals. Of those, 314 are the task force kind.

ICE now makes more than 380 arrests a day in Texas. Close to 10,000 people in Texas have been held through 287(g). Across the country, about 14 percent of ICE arrests now come from these deals. In January 2025 it was 3 percent.

The state pushed hard for this. In 2025 lawmakers passed Senate Bill 8. It tells sheriffs who run a jail to sign a 287(g) deal. The law started January 1. Sheriffs have until December 1 to comply. The state pays grants of 80,000 to 140,000 dollars.

Valley sheriffs do not all agree.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra said he will not sign the task force model.

"When a citizen calls and a sheriff's deputy shows up, we're going to provide them the service they need. We do not ask whether he's legal or illegal, that's not our job," Guerra said.

Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Trevino said he is still reading the rules.

Sarah Cruz works for the ACLU. She said the task force model "has historically been linked to racial profiling."

State Sen. Charles Schwertner is a Republican. Someone asked him about profiling.

"There are obviously inherent biases of individuals," he said. "That said, there are ways to properly train."

But the training got shorter. Trump's team cut it back. They want to sign up local cops faster.

Nayna Gupta studies this at the American Immigration Council.

"I think what we can expect is to see more and more of these errors," she said.

El Tejano has been on this beat all summer. In August we showed that the Valley pays the highest price in Texas for mass deportations. Read it here: https://www.eltejanorgv.com/ice-tax-valley-pays-the-highest-price-in-texas-for-mass-deportations/

We also covered an Army wife who got pulled off a deportation flight and sent back home: https://www.eltejanorgv.com/army-wife-pulled-off-deportation-flight-sent-back-home/

Morales is back in Austin now. Homeland Security would not comment. Neither would the Justice Department. Neither would Governor Greg Abbott or the state police.