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Letter From Ice For Immigrant Removal To My Home, But I Don't Know The Listed Person.

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Location: San Bernardino County CA

I received a letter to my house from Immigration and Customs Enforcement addressed to someone I've never met, never heard of, and do not recognize. We opened the letter with our normal mail without realizing it, and see that it is a "Us Department of Homeland Security Motion to Recalender Administratively Closed Proceedings". This letter is not addressed to myself or my spouse, and we are the only two people that live at our address. Our home is a single family house we purchased about 5 years ago, only one previous owner, and this name does not match the previous owner to the best of my knowledge.

Text of the letter includes the random person's name, my address with correct zip code. This is the first time I've received any mail listing or addressed to this person. Additionally, the court that it lists is in Los Angeles County courthouse, and I live in San Bernardino County.

I'm not sure what, if any steps I need to take from a legal and/or practical standpoint. I'm concerned with a few things:

  • Are we possibly victims of identity theft and/or some form of fraud? If someone is using our address on documents this is a big red flag, and I'd like to get it solved immediately.
  • With the current political climate, I'd rather avoid interactions with ICE coming to my home if possible. If there's a way to get ahead of this, I'd like to.
  • If this is an administrative error, I want the right party to be notified. Especially since this is an immigration/removal action.

    The letter has the names of, but no direct contact information for, a Chief Council, Deputy Chief Council, and a Senior Attorney. I was able to find email addresses for all three online on the ice.gov website.

A few questions:

  1. What legal steps, if any, do I need to take to get this taken care of and get my home address disassociated from this person?
  2. How do I avoid ICE or other law enforcement doing any sort of enforcement action at my home trying to find this person?
  3. (Legal and practical advise both welcome here) Are there any other steps I need to take to make sure that we're not at the start of an identity theft issue here?

Thank you!

submitted by /u/vaderbadger
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