James Busse is now homeless, couch surfing with friends because he lost his job as a stockbroker after immigration agents tried to deport him.

"I remember telling customs agents that, 'My mother's an American citizen. I’m an American citizen,'" Busse said. "Nobody paid any mind or attention."

Busse was born in Barbados and came to the U.S. as an infant when his parents moved here.

His mother became a U.S citizen when he was nine. That enabled him to automatically gain U.S. citizenship, in addition to his Barbados citizenship, when his dad died four years later.

His troubles began in November 2016 after returning from traveling on a Barbados passport.

"They had held my passport, but meanwhile, had me held there for over eight hours," Busse said. "I was handcuffed to a chair."

They asked if he had ever been in jail. The answer was no, but he admitted to three misdemeanor convictions more than 12 years ago.

After the agents asked for records of those convictions, Busse says he shuttled back and forth to JFK for months. His attorneys charge he was being set up by agents who would later use his misdemeanor record against him.

"He was under the impression this was all to clear up this case," said Jessica Kulig of the Cardozo Immigration Justice Clinic. "Little did he know, he would show up and get detained by ICE."

The Department of Homeland Security locked him up in the Bergen County Jail from July to October of last year, 68 days without being able to see a lawyer or a judge.

"I was suicidal. I was very broken. I felt defeated," Busse said.

His attorney says Busse's misdemeanor convictions, including one for receiving stolen property when he was 20, did not and, in this case, cannot cancel out his citizenship.  

"It's not legal for that to happen," said Northwestern University Professor Jacqueline Stevens.

Stevens has researched the Department of Homeland Security detaining and deporting U.S. citizens dating back to 2007.  

"The agency itself concedes that they are not following their own protocols and they are holding people that do have probative evidence of U.S. citizenship," Stevens said.

She found immigration agents illegally detained at least 155 US citizens from october 2014 to June 2017 before eventually releasing them, like Busse, who was able to get his job back but not all his clients.

"My overall quality of life surrounding my livelihood, my profession has been dramatically affected and altered because of what I had to experience last year," Busse said.

In December, an immigration judge dismissed the case "with prejudice," finding a "preponderance of credible evidence" supported Busse's claim that he "derived US Citizenship before he turned 18."

"Everyone deserves answers to this because James is an American citizen if he can be picked up by ice and detained for months without seeing a judge it can happen to anyone."

In a statement, an ICE spokesperson wrote, “ICE takes very seriously any assertion that an individual in its custody may have a claim to U.S. citizenship. ICE has continuously reviewed and enhanced its policies and procedures to ensure all appropriate measures are in place to avoid such incidents.”

Stevens says the only to avoid this ongoing issue and fix it would be to mandate that all immigration detainees have access to legal represenation, similar to a criminal proceeding. This is something New York City has already implemented, leading the nation on that front.