LOS ANGELES - Pedro Guzman is still missing in Mexico, one week after a lawsuit was filed seeking government help in the search for the 29-year-old mentally impaired man illegally deported May 11. The ACLU of Southern California and law firm Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale have asked that government agents assist in the search and request help from Mexican authorities, two steps the U.S. has so far refused to take.

In a court hearing Wednesday, a federal judge declined to order the U.S. to assist in the family's search. But in legal papers filed Friday, the dean of Yale Law School urged the court to order the government into action.

U.S. District Court Judge George King asked the government to respond by 2 p.m. today and indicated he may order a hearing.

Pedro Guzman's mother, brothers and sister-in-law returned to Tijuana last Friday to continue the search, now in its fifth week. The family distributed posters with a photo of Mr. Guzman and met with volunteers who work among Tijuana's homeless community. His mother, Maria Carbajal, remained there today.

Without immediate action from U.S. agents in Mexico, "Pedro Guzman will not be found," ACLU/SC legal director Mark Rosenbaum told the court last Wednesday. "It would be the right thing to do, it would be the moral thing to do," District Court Judge Dean Pregerson said.

The government admitted in court last Wednesday that Guzman is a U.S. citizen, which it had previously disputed. The judge asked that a "lookout," or missing persons report, sent to U.S. ports of entry and the U.S. consulate in Tijuana state that he is a citizen and mention his disability.

While the U.S. government has not actively joined the search, the Salvation Army has offered volunteers to assist the family. "The Salvation Army has done more for my family than the U.S. government," Pedro Guzman's younger brother Michael Guzman told reporters last week.

LOS ANGELES - Federal immigration officers and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department illegally deported a U.S. citizen last month, the ACLU/SC has learned. He is missing in Mexico, and today the ACLU/SC and the law firm of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking his safe return.

Pedro Guzman, 29, was born in Los Angeles and raised in Lancaster, California. He was serving time at Men's Central Jail for trespassing, a misdemeanor offense, when he was deported to Tijuana May 10 or 11. Mr. Guzman is developmentally disabled, does not read or write English well, and knows no one in Tijuana. He declared at his booking that he was born in California.

He spoke to his sister-in-law by telephone from a shelter in Tijuana within a day of his deportation, but the call was interrupted. Family members traveled to the city in an attempt to find him and have remained there, searching shelters, jails, churches, hospitals, and morgues.

There are no circumstances under which government officials may deport a U.S. citizen. Federal officials have refused requests by family members and a private lawyer to assist in the search for Mr. Guzman.

"This is a recurring nightmare for every person of color of immigrant roots," said ACLU/SC legal director Mark Rosenbaum. "Local jail officials and federal immigration officers deported the undeportable, a United States citizen, based on appearance, prejudice, and reckless failure to apply fair legal procedures."

"What has happened to Pedro Guzman is a tragedy," said Stacy Tolchin of Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale. "His life may be in danger, and the government must act immediately to locate him and return him to the United States."

Jail and Department of Homeland Security officials failed to identify Mr. Guzman's disability and improperly obtained his signature for deportation from the United States. "The procedures for determination of legal status implemented by Los Angeles County deputy sheriffs '_ fail even minimal criteria for constitutional due process," the lawsuit states.

Sheriff's deputies trained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conduct immigration checks at L.A. County jails. The ACLU and immigrant-rights groups warned that involving local law enforcement in immigration policing would lead to mistaken deportations and violate the due-process rights of inmates.

Anyone with information about Mr. Guzman can call the ACLU/SC at (213) 977-9500.

Above: Tents on the street in downtown L.A. last year.

With L.A. in a housing crisis, the ACLU/SC and other groups that represent low-income residents are fighting a downtown developer who wants to evade the city's affordable-housing rules.

"The law of the highest bidder will be a nightmare for this city, not just for its poorest residents but for the middle class struggling to hang on," said ACLU/SC staff attorney Peter Bibring. "A clean, safe apartment shouldn't just be a dream for Los Angeles residents, it should be a basic right."

G.H. Palmer Associates sued the city in February over its 15-year-old plan to increase affordable housing in the Central City West area of downtown. The ACLU/SC, Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, and Western Center on Law and Poverty seek to intervene in the lawsuit on behalf of two groups that represent low-income residents and non-profit developers: the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing.

At issue are L.A.'s "inclusionary zoning" rules, adopted in 1991 and intended to help replace affordable apartments lost to redevelopment in the heart of the city. The law requires developers to devote 15% of their apartments to people who make less than $40,000 a year, or to help make such housing available elsewhere. Similar rules are in effect at 33 redevelopment areas scattered throughout the city.

Low- and middle-income Angelenos face an affordable-housing squeeze, according to the filing. The average two-bedroom L.A. apartment costs $1,426. The national norm for rent is 30 percent of a couple's income, and an L.A. family would need to earn $57,040 to afford the city average. A couple earning minimum wage would need to work more than 70 hours a week each.

Between 2001 and 2006, the City lost nearly 11,000 affordable-housing units due to condominium conversions of rent-stabilized units and other reasons, and has been unable to replace them at the same rate. The city replaced less than 10 percent of needed units during that period.

Since 1974, more than 120 cities and counties throughout California have adopted inclusionary zoning ordinances as an effective means of addressing the critical shortage of affordable housing.