ICE Arrests Man Driving His Pregnant Wife to the Hospital to Give Birth [UPDATED]
Update, Sunday, 9:20 a.m.: On Saturday afternoon, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released additional information about the arrest of Joel Arrona Lara. According to The Washington Post, citing ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley, Mexico issued a warrant for the arrest of Arrona on homicide charges. Haley did not provide further details of the warrant.
Arrona has been detained pending removal proceedings, the statement said.
However, according to CBS2 News:
An attorney representing Arrona-Lara on behalf of the nonprofit San Bernardino Community Service Center said those charges are unconfirmed. Emilio Amaya Garcia told CBS2 he has been in contact with the Mexican consulate who said it currently has no information about ICE’s claim.
Garcia added Arrona-Lara’s detention paperwork shows he is in custody for being in the country without documentation.
In its initial statement, ICE made no mention of the homicide charges, CBS added.
Original post continues here:
Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have demonstrated once again that they have no respect for decency and basic human rights.
On Wednesday, ICE agents detained Joel Arrona Lara, 35, at a gas station in San Bernardino, CA. Arrona Lara was en route to a local hospital with his pregnant wife, Maria del Carmen Venegas, 32, who was scheduled to deliver the couple’s son by cesarean section. After the arrest, the agents left Venegas alone at the gas station, where she can be seen on surveillance video crying and wondering what to do next. The mother-to-be eventually drove herself to the hospital, CBS2 News in Los Angeles reported.
According to the report:
Her husband Joel Arrona was driving his wife to the hospital for a scheduled Cesarean section Wednesday afternoon when they had to stop to get gas. That’s when their car was approached by two SUVs. Maria said they were officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The mother of five was then asked to show her identification and complied. When the agents asked Arrona, the couple said he didn’t have the ID on him, but that they lived nearby and could go get it for them. The agents then asked Arrona to exit the vehicle, searched the car for weapons, and put Arrona into custody, leaving Maria alone at the gas station.
After delivering the couple’s baby, Venegas told Univision Noticias, “Yesterday, I was here alone. I felt horrible.” She told CBS that Arrona had never broken the law, and he had not even received a traffic ticket.
In a statement published by CBS2 and other media outlets, ICE admitted it has no regard for any of the life situations of the people it targets—who clearly have nothing to do with so-called “bad hombres,” as Donald Trump repeatedly has claimed.
ICE’s statement noted (emphasis mine):
“Mr. Arrona-Lara, a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States, was taken into custody Wednesday by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers in San Bernardino, Calif. Mr. Arrona-Lara is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR).
“ICE continues to focus its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security. ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. However, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.”
Arrona currently is being held at a detention center while his family searches for a lawyer.