In the 1980s comedy "Born in East L.A.," Cheech Marin is asked who is the president of the United States? He responds, "That cowboy guy, the guy from Death Valley Days,' John Wayne." The Duke versus the Gipper — Ronald Reagan. Easy mistake.

So Marin's character is deported to Mexico, even though he was born in East L.A. and speaks little Spanish.

The comedy then follows his antics as he tries unsuccessfully to sneak back into the U.S.

Just a comedy. Not real life. That would never happen in today's cyberconnected society where everybody's personal data are available to federal and law-enforcement officials at the click of a computer mouse.

Well, the family of Pedro Guzman have a different story to tell you.

Like Marin's character, Guzman was also born in East L.A. But unlike Marin's character, Guzman's family says Pedro is developmentally disabled.

Guzman's troubles began when he was arrested for vandalism and trespassing in Lancaster. While in custody at the Los Angeles County jail, officials, apparently, failed to check on his background and any prior arrests. For some bizarre reason, those officials decided he was an undocumented immigrant and not a U.S. citizen.

After serving about 20 days in jail, he was transferred to an immigration center in Santa Ana where he, apparently, signed a document stating he was a Mexican citizen, according to a story in the L.A. Weekly.

Shortly thereafter, Guzman was shipped off to Tijuana, a Mexican city he had only visited once as a teenager. He arrived there May 11, managed to call his family to tell them where he was, but then the line went dead and for the next three months he appeared to have dropped off the face of this Earth.

During this time, his mother, Maria Carbajal of Lancaster traveled to Tijuana and elsewhere in Baja California to conduct her own search for her son.

For his part, Guzman tried unsuccessfully to re-enter the U.S., being turned away at the border because he didn't have the proper paperwork. He was eventually told by one border guard to "stop playing games."

During the next few months, Guzman lived on the streets, ate out of trash cans and bathed in rivers while his family continued their search on weekends. The American Civil Liberties Union became involved and filed a complaint asking the Department of Homeland Security to get involved and conduct its own search for Guzman.

That complaint was denied by a U.S. District judge.

So the family search went on until this past Sunday, when Guzman was finally stopped and held after trying to cross the border into Calexico from Mexicali, about 100 miles east of Tijuana.

At that point, officials finally figured out he was a U.S. citizen and, of all things, held him on a probation violation for missing a hearing in July — at the same time he was trying to get back to the U.S.

Guzman was taken to the Los Angeles County jail, transferred to the Lancaster and then ordered by a judge to be released to his family Tuesday.

It took 89 days before this man without a country was finally allowed home.

Family members said they have been unable to communicate with him because he is still in a state of shock, stuttering and fearful.

"He left complete, but they took half of my son," Carbajal said at the press conference held this week. "That is the government's fault. They are guilty."

ACLU attorneys vowed to continue their case against the government for unlawful deportation and violation of civil rights.

Mark Rosenbaum, the ACLU's legal director, was livid at the press conference at the organization's headquarters in Los Angeles, calling the action by the federal government nothing short of racial profiling.

"This government deported Pedro Guzman because of his skin color, did not examine or review his documents stating that he was born in California because of his skin color, did not bother to comfort this family when he was found because of his skin color," Rosenbaum was quoted in the L.A. Weekly.

Guzman's case raises troubling questions.

Are the rights of certain U.S. citizens to due process threatened in all the frenzy by some to stop illegal immigration at any cost?

Shouldn't the U.S. government take a more proactive role in finding its own citizens in foreign countries after they have been illegally deported?

Who will be the next Pedro Guzman?

Protecting our borders from a foreign threat like al-Qaida is one thing. Preventing American citizens from re-entering their home country is an entirely different matter.

Unlike the movie "Born in East L.A.," this was not an entertaining comedy, just a comedy of errors.

— Frank Moraga is The Star's director of diversity and general manager of Mi Estrella, The Star's bilingual weekly newspaper. He can be reached at fmoraga@VenturaCountyStar.com.