An American citizen was sitting in a Florida jail at the orders of federal immigration authorities despite a judge finding his birth certificate to be legitimate.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was on a 48-hour U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement hold in the Leon County, Florida Jail after being a passenger in an allegedly speeding car stopped by state troopers, according to the Florida Phoenix, which first reported on Lopez-Gomez’s plight.

Lopez-Gomez, who was born in Grady County, Georgia and moved to Mexico when he was a year old, his distraught mother, Sebastiana Gomez-Perez, told the Phoenix.

The U.S. citizen returned to Georgia four years ago and lives in Grady County, adjacent to the Florida state line.

A Florida state trooper pulled over the car Lopez-Gomez was riding in because it was traveling at 78 m.p.h. in an area where the speed limit is 65 m.p.h., according to the Georgia man’s arrest report.

Lopez-Gomez handed over his Georgia state ID to the trooper, who wrote that Lopez-Gomez was illegally in the U.S., the Phoenix reported.

The Homeland Security Investigations Office in Tampa, Florida issued a 48-hour ICE detainer against Lopez-Gomez on Thursday, the Phoenix reported, noting that the ICE officer whose name appeared on the detained declined to speak to the outlet.

Lopez-Gomez was charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, and although the charge was dropped, he remained held on the ICE detainer.

The Georgia man had a virtual court appearance Thursday.

An immigration advocate handed the Lopez-Gomez’s American birth certificate to the judge, who found it to be “an authentic document” after viewing it in the light.

But the Leon County judge said she did not have the authority to release Lopez-Gomez because of ICE’s detention order.

However, Lopez-Gomez was released from the Leon County Jail on Thursday night, according to Thomas Kennedy of the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who advocated for Lopez-Gomez and his family in court.

The driver and another passenger of the vehicle Lopez-Gomez was in appeared in court Thursday, with the driver also charged with driving without a license.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law earlier this year that makes it a misdemeanor for undocumented immigrants over age 18 to “knowingly” enter Florida “after entering the United States by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers,” according to the Phenix.

Earlier this month, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the law amid a legal challenge.

But Kennedy said Lopez-Gomez was arrested under that law:

The Homeland Security Department told CNN it will look into the detention order.

Lopez-Gomez’s case comes as another puts President Donald Trump’s immigration policies under scrutiny.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man living in Maryland and mistakenly deported to El Salvador and imprisoned without communication, has stirred debate about due process.

For Democrats, the Abrego Garcia case is about fundamental American ideals — due process, following court orders, preventing government overreach. For the Trump administration and Republicans, it’s about foreigners and gang threats and danger in American towns and cities.

This dichotomy is playing out as Democrats double down on their defense of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and imprisoned without communication. They’re framing his case as a threat to individual rights to challenge President Trump’s immigration policies.

The effort comes as the Trump administration pushes back harder, turning this deportation into a test case for his crusade against illegal immigration despite a Supreme Court order saying Abrego Garcia must be returned to the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.