A US-born man charged this week with being an “unauthorized alien” in Florida has been released after spending the night in jail on a 48-hour hold requested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid the Trump administration’s broad deportation crackdown.

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was arrested Wednesday by Florida Highway Patrol when the car he was riding in was pulled over for speeding, according to an arrest affidavit and his attorney, Mutaqee Akbar. The American citizen – born in Grady County, Georgia, where he lives in the city of Cairo – was crossing into Florida for his work in construction in Tallahassee, about 45 minutes from home. 

Uncertainty stemming from a language barrier or even customs paperwork Lopez-Gomez filled out as a teen may be factors in the Florida detention, his attorney and advocate told us as they try to understand what happened.

A senior Department of Homeland Security official told us Lopez-Gomez was detained because he said he was in the US illegally, but Lopez-Gomez’s attorney said his client never said that.

“After a stop by a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S. was detained after he said that he was in the U.S. ILLEGALLY. Immediately after learning the individual was a United State citizen, he was released,” the official said. “When individuals admit to committing a crime, like entering the country illegally, they will of course be detained while officers investigate.”

Still, the case highlights concerns over racial profiling and immigrants’ rights as the White House aims to vastly slow arrivals at the border and eject undocumented immigrants, from children to suspected criminals, and judges weigh the legality of a mounting number of such cases.

“I think it shows the danger of the rhetoric,” Akbar said of Lopez-Gomez’s case. “We can be hard on immigration and want to protect the borders without profiling people because that is what this is: racial profiling.”

Lopez-Gomez, who speaks an indigenous language and is not fluent in English or Spanish, was arrested with two men under a Florida law that took effect in February and was temporarily blocked April 4 by a federal judge, who barred its enforcement until Friday, court records show. It was not immediately clear why the suspended law was in play.

During a hearing on Friday, the judge extended the restriction until April 29, according to Miriam Haskell, the director of litigation at the Community Justice Project, which represents the plaintiffs who are challenging the law. The judge also ordered another hearing on the matter, Haskell added.