A woman who wrote President Obama, asking for help resolving her husband's immigration problem got a response she didn't expect: Federal agents turned up at her New York City home and took her husband to jail.
Officials tell The New York Times that Caroline Jamieson's letter to the president was mistakenly forwarded to an immigration fugitive unit.
After the newspaper inquired about the case, the man, Herve Fonkou Takoulo, was abruptly released on condition he wear on electronic ankle monitor while the case is investigated.
Takoulo is an engineer from Cameroon. He came to the U.S. legally, but was ordered to leave when a judge rejected his application for political asylum.
Now he has a second green card application pending based on his 2005 marriage to Jamieson. Thus far, the deportation order remains in effect.
"ICE has a zero tolerance policy for violations of civil rights," spokesman Brian Hale told the Times. Hale noted that if a review found "that appropriate separation between lawful correspondence and investigations was violated," Takoulo's case would be handed over to ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security.
