Arizona ICE agents posed as city workers to trick way into illegal immigrant's home, neighbors claim: ‘Should be a crime'
Two men dressed as electric company workers turned up in a south Tucson neighborhood Wednesday morning and began asking residents if they knew a Honduran man who lived on the street for over a decade, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
The men claimed to be from Tucson Electric Power (TED) and told neighbors they were trying to provide the man with city services he'd asked for, neighbor Christine Cariño told the outlet.
Neighbor Christine Cariño claimed immigration officers disguised themselves as city workers to try to get into a home.
'He said, 'We're trying to find somebody that wanted a free estimate,'' claimed Cariño, who was watering her plants across the street.
But she claimed the men were not wearing proper TED uniforms — one had a reflective work shirt and the other a black t-shirt — and became suspicious that the men weren't who they said they were as they pressed for information about her neighbor.
Then when they turned towards the Honduran man's home she claimed to see a badge hidden under one of their shirts — and asked if they were from the Department of Homeland Security.
'He just smiled. So I took off running,' Cariño said.
The men had by then been let into the Honduran man's yard across the street by his stepson, and Cariño started yelling at him not to let them in.
'Don't open the door, they don't have a warrant!' she was heard yelling in video from the incident, obtained by KGUN 9. 'They're lying, they're not in a uniform!'
One of the men wore a reflective shirt to look like a city worker, video shows.
KGUN
Immigration officials aren't allowed to enter people's homes without consent from an occupant if they don't have a warrant — and Cariño claimed the individuals appeared to be faking their identity to trick their way into the man's home.
Speaking through the home's door, the agents said the Honduran had missed immigration court dates, but he denied that and refused to come out.
The family later corroborated Cariño's version of events to KGUN 9.
It remains unclear whether the men Cariño encountered were from ICE, but a spokesperson for the agency told the Arizona Daily Star 'It's an ongoing investigation' while declining to comment on the allegations of impersonation.
Such tactics have allegedly been used by immigration officials across the country in the past, according to the outlet, and have previously been called unconstitutional in a 2020 American Civil Liberties Union complaint out of California. That case is still pending.
But Cariño thinks it should be illegal.
'That should be considered a crime, impersonating a company to try to remove somebody from a home,' she told the Arizona Daily Star. 'If he had a warrant, the situation would have been different. Do it the right way.'
South Tucson's mayor agrees, and characterized Cariño's reaction as admirable.
'That lady is a hero,' Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela said. 'We need to protect each other. Now is not the time to be silent.'
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Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Can ICE agents pull you over? Jailing of Kansas immigrant raises question.
Luis Diaz Inestroza — a native Honduran, a father, a Kansas City, Kansas, homeowner and small business owner who entered the United States illegally 13 years ago— was driving to work in July when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulled him over in his truck. His company's name, 'Diaz Repair and Remodeling,' was emblazoned across the doors. Besides entering the United States when he was 15, Diaz Inestroza had done nothing wrong. He had no criminal history. There was no previous warrant for his arrest. In fact, said Megan Galicia, Diaz Inestroza's Kansas City attorney, when ICE agents first turned up outside of Diaz Inestroza's home, they weren't looking for Diaz Inestroza, who, in 2019, was featured in the Selena Gomez documentary 'Living Undocumented.' 'They were looking for someone else,' Galicia said. What happened next was legal. ICE ran Diaz Inestroza's plates and pulled his name. They saw he had a history with ICE; he was in the U.S. illegally. That was enough. They obtained and printed a warrant. The very next day — although Diaz Inestroza hadn't sped, he hadn't run a red light, he hadn't failed to come to a full stop — ICE officers stopped him in his truck and arrested him. Last week, having been turned down for release on bond, Diaz Inestroza chose to self-deport, leaving his pregnant fiancée and three children (two of whom are U.S. citizens) behind. Diaz Inestroza's is a real-life scenario that raises a real question: Do ICE officers have the authority to make traffic stops? The answer, immigration attorneys and advocates say, is both simple … and not. Technically, ICE and other federal agents do not have statutory authority to make stops for traffic or vehicle violations — such as running a red light, or having expired tags, low tire pressure, excessively tinted windows, or not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign. That authority, in general, lies with state and local police departments. But that doesn't mean that ICE agents still can't stop motorists. If they have a warrant, as occurred with Diaz Inestroza, they can certainly pull someone over. 'They're law enforcement officers,' Galicia, Diaz Inestroza's attorney said. 'They have the power to stop people.' But even without a warrant, ICE officers can still stop a vehicle if they have 'reasonable suspicion' that the driver or passengers are in the U.S. illegally. Although an individual's race or ethnicity can be one factor in creating 'reasonable suspicion,' it cannot be the only factor. The U.S. Supreme Court made this ruling nearly 50 years ago in the 1975 case, United States v. Brignoni-Ponce. In that case, border patrol agents stopped Felix Humberto Brignoni-Ponce in his car with other passengers based soley on the fact that he appeared to be of Mexican descent. The Supreme Court ruled that the border agents had no probable cause for the stop other than Brignoni-Ponce's ethnicity and, as such, further violated Brignoni-Ponce's Fourth Amendment gaurantee against illegal search and seizure. But if the agents, however, know a driver is in the country illegally, they do have the authority to make a stop and, perhaps, a warrantless arrest — although immigration advocates fear that ICE agents have begun to interpret that authority too broadly and misuse it. 'The process,' said Kansas City immigration attorney Michael Sharma-Crawford, 'isn't being followed.' The prime law at play, Sharma-Crawford said, is the Immigration and Nationality Act, Section 287(a), also written as Title 8 of U.S. Code 1357 (a) The law spells out the powers of immigration officers without a warrant. Section (a)(1) says an officer 'shall have power without a warrant to interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States.' Section (a)(2) goes on to say that immigration officers also have the 'power without a warrant to arrest any alien' who they see illegally 'entering or attempting to enter the United States.' That section of law generally relates to indviduals viewed crossing illegally at U.S. borders. The clause that Sharma-Crawford and others fear immigration officers are misusing is the very next one that says that agents can also arrest any alien in the U.S. if an officer has 'reason to believe' that an individual so arrested 'is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.' Sharma-Crawford's said that agents have begun making such arrests, claiming that individuals are threats for escape, although that is often not the case. After ICE has an individual's name, their address, their license plate number, Sharma-Crawford argues, 'how is he going to escape?' In 2018, the accusation that Homeland Security agents had been missuing the law led to a class action lawsuit in Chicago federal court, Margarito Castañon Nava v. Department of Homeland Security. The case centers on a number of plaintiffs including Castañon Nava, who is Hispanic and had been living in Chicago for 17 years when he was stopped in his work truck. Castañon Nava was driving with other passengers when ICE agents in vests marked 'Police' pulled him over, asked Castañon Nava and the others for identification, fingerprinted them, took their photographs, handcuffed and arrested them. Another plaintiff was driving in his van with coworkers when he was also stopped, ostensibly for low tire pressure, and also subsequenlty taken into custody by ICE agents. The case, in 2022, ultimately led to a decision and settlement agreement in which ICE agents can't just have a vague 'reason to believe' that individual is potentially going to escape. They instead are legally required to document the specific facts establishing that believe, while also articulating the facts that leave them to believe that an individual inside a vehicle is in the country illegally. The three-year Castañon Nava settlement agreement, however, expired in May. Immigration advocates are now waiting for a decision by the court as to whether the agreement will be extended for an additional three years. Some ICE officers, meanwhile, have arrested people at their cars in league with local or state police. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court in Whren v. United States, ruled unanimously that state and local police have the authority to make what are known as 'pretextual traffic stops.' 'They held that if a police officer witnesses a traffic violation, they can go ahead and conduct a traffic stop, pull someone over, even if that stop is 'pretexual'' — meaning the real motivation was to investigate other potential crimes.' said Kenyu Ching, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas. 'Obviously, pretextual stops are a really powerful took that allow cops to stop somebody on what might be a technicality, when the real reason they wanted to stop that person is something completely different.' ICE officers, however, are not authorized to make pretextual stops. Because ICE officers cannot make stops for traffic violations and because state and local police are, typically, not allowed to make immigration arrests, the separate law enforcement agencies have been working together in some states to make immigration arrests. ICE, in May, for example, noted that a weeklong cooperative agreement between state police and federal officers resulted in the arrests of 196 'criminal illegal aliens,' some which they claimed had 'significant criminal histories and outstanding final orders of removal.' 'This enforcement effort underscores ICE's unwavering commitment to public safety and the rule of law,' Brian Acuna, the field office director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at New Orleans Field Office, said in a release at the time. 'Our officers are focused on identifying and removing individuals who pose a threat to the safety and security of Tennessee residents. 'During the operation, I witnessed the men and women of the Tennessee Highway Patrol carry out significant public safety efforts. The New Orleans Field Office is grateful for their support.' Concerns over the treatment of immigrants at traffic stops in Kansas City to President Donald Trump's first administration when, in July 2019, Kansas City police officers smashed the window of Florencio MIllan's car, and forcibly removed him in front of his children, while the 32-minute encounter was live-streamed by his partner. Similar encounters, recorded on video, have occurred in other cities throughout 2025. Trinidad Raj Molina, a board member with Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR) in Kansas City, emphasized that individuals without legal status in the country still have rights. In a written statement, the organization noted, the the Fifth Amendment gives people the right to remain silent, inluding when being stopped or question or detained by ICE officers. The Fourth Amendment guarantees the right to refuse search or entry to property without a valid and signed judicial warrant. 'If there is not probable cause of arrest, you can question it,' Molina said of traffic stops. 'You can ask, 'Am I free to go?' Video the whole interaction.'
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Child with Stage 4 cancer deported by ICE despite being US citizen, lawsuit says
A 4-year-old boy's ongoing care for Stage 4 kidney cancer was interrupted when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers illegally deported him, his sister and mother 'without even a semblance of due process,' attorneys for the family say. Though they are U.S. citizens and were born Louisiana, the boy and his 7-year-old sister were deported to Honduras along with their 25-year-old mother, who is a Honduran citizen, on April 25, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Louisiana on July 31. The filing uses pseudonyms for the family, referring to the brother and sister as Romeo and Ruby and their mother as Rosario. Before their deportations, Romeo, now 5, was receiving 'life-saving' treatment at a New Orleans children's hospital for his 'rare and aggressive form' of cancer, following his diagnosis at age 2, a complaint says. 'As a direct consequence of ICE's unlawful conduct, Romeo was deprived of much-needed continuity in his treatment, and he has faced substantial health risks due to his inability to access emergency specialized care and the routine critical oncological care that was available to him in the United States,' his family's attorneys wrote in the complaint. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Romeo and his family, as well as a second family also wrongly deported by ICE under similar circumstances on April 25, according to the National Immigration Project, Gibson Dunn, Most & Associates, and Ware Immigration, groups representing the case. The second family includes Julia, 30, a mother from Honduras. She has two daughters, Jade, 2, a U.S. citizen born in Baton Rouge, and Janelle, 11, also a Honduran citizen. Those names are also pseudonyms. The same week of both families' deportations, Rosario and Julia separately went to what they thought were supposed to be 'regularly scheduled check-ins' with an ICE contractor. However, officers with ICE apprehended both women and their children 'in hotel rooms' in secret, the National Immigration Project said in a July 31 news release. ICE 'denied them the opportunity to speak to family and make decisions about or arrangements for their minor children, denied them access to counsel, and deported them within less than a day in one case and just over 2 days in the other,' the advocacy organization said. According to the lawsuit, ICE did not let Rosario or Julia decide whether they wanted their children to come with them to Honduras or to make arrangements for them to stay in the U.S. with other loved ones. 'Given Romeo's cancer and specialized medical needs, Rosario wanted both of her U.S. citizen children to remain in the United States,' the complaint says. DHS, however, maintains both women wanted their children with them. In response to McClatchy News' request for comment for DHS and ICE on Aug. 11, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that 'the media and Democrat politicians are force-feeding the public false information that U.S. citizen children are being deported. This is false and irresponsible.' 'Rather than separate their families, ICE asked the mothers if they wanted to be removed with their children or if they wanted ICE to place the children with someone safe the parent designates,' McLaughlin added. 'The parents in this instance made the determination to take their children with them back to Honduras.' The lawsuit has been brought against Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE and ICE Director Todd Lyons, as well as New Orleans ICE Field Office Director Brian Acuna, the office's Assistant Field Office Director Scott Ladwig and the office's former director, Mellissa Harper. Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre declined to comment. After being deported in April, Rosario said in a statement shared in National Immigration Project's news release that life in Hondorus has been 'incredibly hard.' 'I don't have the resources to care for my children the way they need,' Rosario said. The morning of April 25, ICE officers are accused of waking Rosario, Romeo and Ruby and forcing them into a van. They drove them to an airport in the Alexandria area and had them flown to Honduras, the lawsuit says. With her son still in need of specialized treatment for his cancer, which had spread to his lungs, she has to send Romeo 'back and forth' from Honduras to the U.S. for care, without her, according to the complaint. 'Even though she has very limited financial resources, Rosario has already had to pay for flights and travel companions to enable her children to return to the United States for Romeo's necessary medical appointments,' the complaint says. Romeo, whose health has worsened, has been temporarily staying in the U.S. for cancer treatment, according to the filing. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that ICE wrongly arrested, detained and deported Rosario, Romeo and Ruby, as well as Julia, Jade and Janelle, in violation of their constitutional rights. 'This whole situation has been incredibly stressful,' Julia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, the father of her daughters, said in a statement shared by the National Immigration Project. 'Returning to Honduras has meant leaving my husband behind, and that's been very hard,' she added. In a statement to McClatchy News, National Immigration Project attorney Stephanie Alvarez-Jones said 'ICE put these families through a series of incredibly traumatizing experiences, taking actions that are completely shocking from a human perspective and illegal even by ICE's own standards.' 'ICE denied these families the fundamental opportunity to make meaningful choices about the care and custody of their children, and detained and deported U.S. citizens in flagrant violation of its own policy and the law,' Alvarez-Jones added. The families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and demand a jury trial.
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Miami Herald
Child with stage 4 cancer deported by ICE despite being US citizen, lawsuit says
A 4-year-old boy's ongoing care for stage 4 kidney cancer was interrupted when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers illegally deported him, his sister and mother 'without even a semblance of due process,' attorneys for the family say. Though they are U.S. citizens and were born Louisiana, the boy and his 7-year-old sister were deported to Honduras along with their 25-year-old mother, who is a Honduran citizen, on April 25, according to a federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Louisiana on July 31. The filing uses pseudonyms for the family, referring to the brother and sister as Romeo and Ruby and their mother as Rosario. Before their deportations, Romeo, now 5, was receiving 'life-saving' treatment at a New Orleans children's hospital for his 'rare and aggressive form' of cancer, following his diagnosis at age 2, a complaint says. 'As a direct consequence of ICE's unlawful conduct, Romeo was deprived of much-needed continuity in his treatment, and he has faced substantial health risks due to his inability to access emergency specialized care and the routine critical oncological care that was available to him in the United States,' his family's attorneys wrote in the complaint. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Romeo and his family, as well as a second family also wrongly deported by ICE under similar circumstances on April 25, according to the National Immigration Project, Gibson Dunn, Most & Associates, and Ware Immigration, groups representing the case. The second family includes Julia, 30, a mother from Honduras. She has two daughters, Jade, 2, a U.S. citizen born in Baton Rouge, and Janelle, 11, also a Honduran citizen. Those names are also pseudonyms. The same week of both families' deportations, Rosario and Julia separately went to what they thought were supposed to be 'regularly scheduled check-ins' with an ICE contractor. However, officers with ICE apprehended both women and their children 'in hotel rooms' in secret, the National Immigration Project said in a July 31 news release. ICE 'denied them the opportunity to speak to family and make decisions about or arrangements for their minor children, denied them access to counsel, and deported them within less than a day in one case and just over 2 days in the other,' the advocacy organization said. According to the lawsuit, ICE did not let Rosario or Julia decide whether they wanted their children to come with them to Honduras or to make arrangements for them to stay in the U.S. with other loved ones. 'Given Romeo's cancer and specialized medical needs, Rosario wanted both of her U.S. citizen children to remain in the United States,' the complaint says. DHS, however, maintains both women wanted their children with them. In response to McClatchy News' request for comment for DHS and ICE on Aug. 11, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that 'the media and Democrat politicians are force-feeding the public false information that U.S. citizen children are being deported. This is false and irresponsible.' 'Rather than separate their families, ICE asked the mothers if they wanted to be removed with their children or if they wanted ICE to place the children with someone safe the parent designates,' McLaughlin added. 'The parents in this instance made the determination to take their children with them back to Honduras.' The lawsuit has been brought against Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, ICE and ICE Director Todd Lyons, as well as New Orleans ICE Field Office Director Brian Acuna, the office's Assistant Field Office Director Scott Ladwig and the office's former director, Mellissa Harper. Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre declined to comment. After being deported in April, Rosario said in a statement shared in National Immigration Project's news release that life in Hondorus has been 'incredibly hard.' 'I don't have the resources to care for my children the way they need,' Rosario said. The morning of April 25, ICE officers are accused of waking Rosario, Romeo and Ruby and forcing them into a van. They drove them to an airport in the Alexandria area and had them flown to Honduras, the lawsuit says. With her son still in need of specialized treatment for his cancer, which had spread to his lungs, she has to send Romeo 'back and forth' from Honduras to the U.S. for care, without her, according to the complaint. 'Even though she has very limited financial resources, Rosario has already had to pay for flights and travel companions to enable her children to return to the United States for Romeo's necessary medical appointments,' the complaint says. Romeo, whose health has worsened, has been temporarily staying in the U.S. for cancer treatment, according to the filing. The lawsuit asks the court to declare that ICE wrongly arrested, detained and deported Rosario, Romeo and Ruby, as well as Julia, Jade and Janelle, in violation of their constitutional rights. 'This whole situation has been incredibly stressful,' Julia, who is married to a U.S. citizen, the father of her daughters, said in a statement shared by the National Immigration Project. 'Returning to Honduras has meant leaving my husband behind, and that's been very hard,' she added. In a statement to McClatchy News, National Immigration Project attorney Stephanie Alvarez-Jones said 'ICE put these families through a series of incredibly traumatizing experiences, taking actions that are completely shocking from a human perspective and illegal even by ICE's own standards.' 'ICE denied these families the fundamental opportunity to make meaningful choices about the care and custody of their children, and detained and deported U.S. citizens in flagrant violation of its own policy and the law,' Alvarez-Jones added. The families are seeking an unspecified amount in damages and demand a jury trial.
