A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) attorney is facing a misdemeanor charge for allegedly forging a document that could have prevented a Mexican citizen from staying in the United States.

Attorney Jonathan M. Love is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday for depriving the rights of a Mexican immigrant identified as Ignacio Lanuza, reports Fox News. Officials say Love forged a document to make it look like Lanuza was not eligible to remain in the U.S.

Lanuza illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexican border in 1996 before deciding to settle in Seattle. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to unlawfully displaying a weapon after handling a friend's pistol at a party, according to the lawsuit. As a result, ICE started removal proceedings at that time.

The following year, Lanuza married his girlfriend and began fighting to have his ICE removal canceled, since he was married to a U.S. citizen and had met the stipulation of being in the U.S. for 10 consecutive years, reports The Associated Press.

Love, who was assigned the case in 2009, submitted a document to the Immigration Court that he claimed Lanuza signed back in 2000. The document stated that Lanuza gave up his right to appear before an immigration judge after he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in 2000.

Love also said Lanuza had left the country, making him ineligible to petition to cancel the removal. However, prosecutors say Love forged the date to make Lanuza appear ineligible.

By signing the documents, prosecutors say Love deprived Lanuza of the right to a "full and fair immigration removal proceeding free from false and fabricated evidence."

Matt Adams, a lawyer for the Northwest Immigration Rights Project, who represented Lanuza in a separate civil case against Love, applauded prosecutors for bringing charges. He said the charges against Love "are an important step in establishing accountability and sending a clear message that all people are entitled to a fair hearing."

"We hope that the Department of Homeland Security will review all of the cases this ICE attorney handled to determine whether there are other victims who need relief," Adams said in an email to The AP. "The anti-immigrant forces that express outrage over people violating our immigration law, demanding their immediate deportation, ignore the fact that those same immigration laws provide many people an opportunity to demonstrate that they qualify for lawful residence or other lawful status in this country."