It is worse than that - he got nothing.

> After Watson was freed, he sued the government for false imprisonment and won an $82,500 judgment. Then a federal appeals court took it away, ruling that while Watson was in detention he missed the two-year deadline to file his claim.

You are correct. The $20,000 sum comes from a different individual who was only imprisoned for 4 days.

If you want to read the reasoning behind it, this is the appeals ruling:

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Wa...

> ...ruling that while Watson was in detention he missed the two-year deadline to file his claim.

Kafka would be proud methinks...

add to that the way they let him go:

> Surprised by his unexplained freedom, Watson walked out of a federal detention center in rural Alabama. He recalled how he was penniless, in prison garb and thousands of miles from home when he approached strangers at a gas station to borrow a phone.

The greater the pain inflicted on undesirables, the more that ICE pleases its key constituency. If the law is applied unfairly, if the law is broken, that only serves to enhance ICE's reputation as an organization willing to get the job done no matter what it takes, a la Charles Bronson in Death Wish.