ICE makes multiple arrests in Tucson Friday, including outside a school

Immigration agents in Tucson made multiple arrests Friday in operations spanning the city, from Barrio Santa Rosa to an east-side sushi restaurant, and even briefly questioned a city employee before noticing the logo on his truck, city officials said.

Three people from Venezuela — all with pending asylum cases, a relative said — were arrested after masked agents pulled over their vehicle in front of the Drachman Montessori Magnet School, on 22nd Street and South 10th Avenue, according to witnesses and Arizona Rep. Alma Hernandez, a Tucson Democrat.

Drachman Principal Jesús Celaya said agents, apparently with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrested three of four people who were in the vehicle they'd pulled over in front of the school's playground around 11 a.m. Friday. 

Dozens of children were on the playground at the time, he said. Celaya brought those children inside and decided to delay the planned physical-education class for kindergarten students until ICE left.

"I didn’t want children to witness it," he said, adding he was also concerned for students' safety.

"One of the ICE agents had a pepper spray can in his hands," he said. "The fumes of that could definitely travel through the wind to children who are trying to go to school. ... The choice of the location didn’t seem logical or safe for the public, including just kids trying to go through their school day."

A 29-year-old female passenger in the vehicle, who was not detained, said she was in the car with her husband, brother and sister-in-law. At first, agents only took her husband and brother into custody.

But then, "my sister-in-law was asking the officer a lot of questions," she said, speaking in Spanish. "And the officer felt offended, and he arrested her there, too."

All have pending asylum cases, said the woman, who asked the Star to identify her by her second name, Patricia. The family has been checking in with ICE every three months and hasn't had any problems until now, she said. 

Patricia, who arrived in the U.S. in October 2023 with her husband, said she pleaded with an ICE officer to let her family members go.

"I simply started crying and I said to him, 'Please, may God touch your heart, you are a human being. Please, I beg you. We are people, we are not criminals, we are honest people. Don't do this to us.' I spoke to him, I cried, but they didn't care, they simply took the three of them," she said. "Why didn't they take me? I don't know — God's mercy."

Hernandez, the state lawmaker, said arresting a family in front of an elementary school is "reckless," particularly because the family has an active asylum case.

"They all had proper documentation to show they are legally here while their case is being processed," Hernandez said in a news release. "ICE was made aware of this and still took them. This puts families, children, and entire neighborhoods like mine at risk, and demonstrates a blatant disregard for public safety."

Images circulated on social media Friday of work trucks being stopped by ICE agents, including one such stop at 22nd and Swan Friday morning, though it's not clear if ICE made arrests at the time.

One city worker, a male employee in the Department of Transportation and Mobility, was questioned briefly by an agent at a convenience store on Irvington Road near Benson Highway on Friday morning, said City Manager Timothy Thomure in a written statement late Friday.

Around 6:40 a.m., ICE agents approached the employee and asked him for identification. As the man returned to his work vehicle, an agent noticed the City of Tucson logo and pointed it out to another agent. All three agents then turned and walked away, Thomure said.

Thomure said the incident is a worrisome indication that ICE isn't targeting "the worst of the worst," but community members.

"It is deeply concerning that our employee seems to have been randomly selected for questioning and that the only thing that may have spared him" was the logo on his vehicle, Thomure said. "This encounter does not align with what federal immigration agencies have stated previously that their enforcement is driven by criminal warrants targeting the 'worst of the worst.' In fact, this encounter appears to be nothing more than the selection of a random member of our community who met an unstated profile established by the current federal administration."

Multiple incidents this week

Friday's ICE operations seem to indicate an escalation, Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said.

"As has been widely reported, today apparently marked a significant change in circumstances with increased ICE activity throughout many of our neighborhoods across the County," she said in a written statement late Friday. "Some of the activity observed today looked nothing like what we are familiar with from our local law enforcement. ... I will continue not to rush to judgment. But neither will I tolerate illegal conduct if proof of it comes to me."

Conover encouraged members of the public to submit any photos or videos they believe show "improper or illegal conduct" to the County Attorney's Office website at pcao.pima.gov.

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"I remind the community again to use your constitutional rights, to use your voice, to make yourself heard, to join and support each other in solidarity, and to protect one another. And I need you to do all of this peacefully and from a distance so each one of you goes home safe and sound each night."

Also on Friday morning, apparent ICE officers detained an employee at Sakura restaurant, 6534 E. Tanque Verde Road. They arrested an employee before doors opened, which resulted in other employees not showing up for work and off-duty employees being called in, an employee told the Star.

Video from the scene shows a group of masked agents wearing uniforms that said "POLICE ICE" taking one man. 

ICE's media team said they would not have time Friday to respond to the Star's 12:30 p.m. query about how many people ICE arrested in Tucson on Friday, and whether they were "targeted" arrests of people known to ICE.

"There are about a dozen or so ahead of your queries so your deadline will not be met," ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe said in a 1 p.m. email. 

In the email, Pitts O'Keefe said she could not share any information about people ICE arrests unless the Star provides the person's name and "alien number," a unique identification number assigned by the Department of Homeland Security.

She also would not comment on whether there are, or will soon be, more ICE agents operating in Tucson or Phoenix. 

"For OP Sec (operational security) reasons, we don’t give out the number of officers and agents in field," she said in the Friday email.

ICE breaks truck window

Also, on Sunday, Jan. 18, on Tucson's south side, ICE agents broke a driver's side truck window while questioning the man inside, before taking him into custody, according to video of the incident shared with the Star.

Steven Davis, the Rapid Response Network volunteer who shot the video, said he watched an ICE agent first use a device to break the driver's-side window before breaking the rest of it using his elbow and fist.

Another officer on the passenger side of the vehicle then opened the passenger side door and reached across to open the driver's-side door for the other agent, who took the man into custody, the video shows.

ICE did not respond to the Star's queries about why the man was detained and why agents had to break his window.

Davis said he noticed ICE following the man from the El Super grocery store to a gas station across the street, so Davis followed the ICE agents to act as a witness.

After the man's arrest, Davis said he noticed the man had work tools in the back of his truck, bags of groceries in the front seat of the car and a half-eaten croissant on the armrest. 

Observing ICE activity is emotionally painful, but necessary, Davis said.

"It's difficult to watch," he said. "Our job is to be there for our neighbors and whatever this is for me, it's so much worse for the ones who are detained and the family and friends they leave behind."

Local advocates worry the flurry of activity indicates a real surge in ICE activity in Tucson, even as the number of unverified or false reports has also increased in recent weeks.

Responding to Friday's ICE activity, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero urged Tucsonans to remain peaceful if they protest immigration-enforcement activity.

"You have the right to protest and document these activities. It's very important to remain peaceful while you do so," Romero said in an Instagram post. "The Trump administration wants to create fear and chaos in our community. Please stay safe and do not physically engage with federal agents or damage property."

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is also encouraging observers to document federal agents' activities through photo and video, in response to the fatal shooting of Minneapolis mom Renee Good on Jan. 7 by an ICE agent. Mayes has created a website for members of the public to report "potential unlawful activity by federal agents or personnel," including immigration agents.

Patricia, whose Venezuelan family members were arrested Friday, said her family doesn't have an attorney, nor money for one. She's deeply anxious over what she's read about how the U.S. government treats "Latinos."

"It's something that has me worried," she said. "I thought that here in the United States I was going to have a better life, a more peaceful life, and it turns out that now I live in agony with the government here."