Houston chef claims he was wrongly detained by Customs and Border Protection

HOUSTON – A local man says he was unjustly locked up by immigration officials for more than two months; an ordeal that started when David Rodriguez and his new wife Vanessa, were trying to travel home to Houston from their honeymoon.

“This is just about trying to bring awareness to the ordeal,” said Rodriguez, “that’s all we are trying to do here.”

Although born in Mexico, Rodriguez moved to Houston when he was 12-years-old and has a green card. Last September, he was traveling home from his honeymoon in Belize when he was stopped at the Miami International Airport.

“Something came up and they took me to the back room,” explained Rodriguez.

What came up was an alleged felony conviction from years ago; however, his lawyer says that was a mistake and that conviction was really just a misdemeanor. Still Customs and Border Protection confiscated his green card.

Rodriguez says he was allowed to travel on to Houston but was told to pick up his passport on November 12th at the Houston Immigration Detention Center off Greens road. When he arrived on November 12th, Rodriguez was arrested.

According to Rodriguez, he was locked up for 78 days.

“It was just a tough ordeal to go through,” said Vanessa Rodriguez, “but we are not the only ones that go through it.”

“I was just concerned about my wife’s safety and to make sure she was all right. I was thinking of what’s going to happen afterwards?”

“Innocent people end up paying,” said Rodriguez. “I’m not the only case, there are hundreds of cases like mine. The difference is that I chose to do something about it and speak out about it.”

KHOU reached out to Houston’s Customs and Border Protection for a response and were referred to the national media contact. As of Wednesday night, there has been no response.