San Bernardino, California – Last week, a couple was held up by ICE agents on their way to the hospital to deliver a baby, even worse, the father was detained and unable to witness the birth of his baby, and is now facing deportation. Maria del Carmen Venegas and her husband Joel Arrona were on their way to the hospital this Sunday for a scheduled Cesarean section, but when they stopped to get gas on the way, their car was surrounded by police vehicles and numerous ice agents jumped out and began asking them for identification. The couple has reportedly been living together for 12 years in Southern California and have four other children.
Venegas was able to show them ID, but unfortunately, her husband was not, so he was carried away by ICE agents, leaving the pregnant mother to drive to the hospital on her own and deliver her baby by herself.
“I [asked] them why they separated good people like that. Why they did not arrest people who are bad and do bad things, let us go, but they told me that they were only doing their job. I never thought … that they would take him away, that they would hand him over, and that they would leave me at the gas station,” Venegas said, according to KVEA.
Luckily Venegas did not face any complications from the encounter or from getting herself to the hospital, but she was hours late for her appointment had elevated blood pressure when she arrived at the hospital.
ICE spokeswoman Lori Haley released the following statement: “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. 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.” Venegas says that ICE will not allow her to contact her husband or even let him know that their child is ok.
“My husband needs to be here. He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away,” she said. “The last thing he knew was that I was here in the hospital. I’m sure he’s worried,” she added.
ICE officials released a later statement to NBC saying that Arrona was wanted for murder in Mexico, however, if the warrant was the reason he was targeted this should have been in the first statement. His family maintains his innocence and says that he has never been in trouble before and has not been to Mexico for many years.
The family’s attorney Emilio Amaya, says that there is no official record of him being a murder suspect. “Using the name and date of birth, we couldn’t find anything saying he was in any criminal proceedings,” Amayo said. A GoFundMe fundraiser has been set up to help the family. To donate, click here.
Illegal aliens are not "good people" they are all criminals and should be treated as such. this guy is married to a citizen and has been here for 12 years and never bothered to get a green card? The only way that makes sense is if he is wanted for murder in Mexico or something like that, otherwise why not apply for a green card?
Should murder suspects be immune from arrest if they impregnate someone?
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Green Card application isn't exactly easy in any country especially in the USA (unless you're rich, no government cares if you buys green card left and right so long as a you paid). 12 years is not a world record for how long it takes to get a green card approved. Couple that with the mistreatment of American government to Mexican immigrants... It's not hard to imagine how he's fucked by the American government. Regardless of the alleged wanted status. If he really was a wanted murderer fugitive it would have taken ICE way less than 12 years to track him down. "America is the best country in the world" right?
And I've seen enough law enforcement injustice in America to not trust any American law enforcement statements at face value. Also what the fuck is up with ICE and their fetish of tearing up families in the name of the law? Every news about this type of human moral violations that i read makes USA more and more revolting to me as a country.
There is a short list of countries I prefer not to step foot on given how fucked up they are right now. Sadly, unless there is change, America is currently the top of the list. And the "Yeah we don't want you too" reaction by most of the conservatives right-wing nuts just further proves my point.
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It is really not that hard to apply for a green card, you don't need to be rich. Why do you think he applied?
Lemme guess, you are reading main stream media sources? They are manufacturing the feeling you are feeling only because they hate Donald Trump, did you ever see any stories about ICE breaking up families when their Obama was in office? They didn't just start doing that, they always have, all law enforcement agencies everywhere "break up families" anytime a parent is arrested.
The fetish is with leftists trying to portray ICE as primarily breaking up families in order to have something to blame on Donald Trump, they will always say in the articles that this is happening because Trump right?
Should murder suspects be immune from arrest if they impregnate someone?
As far as I know it is the best, what country is better than America?
To be fair to them we have enough people here suffering Trump Derangement Syndrome, we don't need to import any. All other visitors and legal immigrants are welcome.
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There's no evidence he's a "murder suspect." It's always the same with these things, blame the victim and do character assassination, meanwhile, ICE has been kidnapping all kinds of people, including legal residents, refugees and US citizens, not to mention the slavery lawsuit currently ongoing.
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This guy was neither a legal resident, a refugee nor a US citizen and no one has refuted the claim that he was wanted for murder.
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Except a) that's not how burden of proof works and b) "He said the paperwork from ICE does not mention homicide. According to the family, he has no criminal history in Mexico, and we did our own search through Mexican channels and we didn’t find anything under his name,” Mr. Amaya said."
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oh, so the murderer and the folks who were sheltering an illegal alien said that, they are way more credible than ICE, how come this article left out how this was a scheduled C-section?
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a) Indeed, ICE's bees kidnapping legal residents of all kinds and is undergoing a lawsuit for slavery, so yeah, I don't trust them and b) you said "nobody denied that he was wanted for murder" the family and the lawyer did, perhaps you don't consider them persons, hence your claim of "nobody." Good luck with it, Bobby.
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the family harbored a criminal and the lawyer is trying to keep one here. They are not people who are credible. Anyone can be sued for anything, sounds like a frivolous and irrelevant lawsuit. Why did they try to act like she was in labor instead of on the way to a planned C section?
a week later no one in the media has been able to prove that ICE was lying and this guy was an innocent victim?
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This is not a kidnapping. It is a lawful arrest of someone who is UNLAWFULLY in the country. Period.
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What a travesty. But without knowing the full story it's hard to fully judge.
As a Malaysian I can never fully understand the right-wing fever that's plaguing the US right now.
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