The traffic stop in Tucson that ended with two parents and a 12-year-old girl taken into Border Patrol custody began with window tint that was too dark, authorities confirmed Thursday.
A trooper stopped a 2017 Dodge Charger for illegal window tint about 1:50 p.m. Tuesday, according to a statement the Arizona Department of Public Safety issued Thursday morning. The stop occurred near the intersection of West 22nd Street and South Ninth Avenue.
The video of the arrests on Facebook has more than 23,000 views. An online fundraising campaign for the family’s legal expenses has raised more than $8,000 from about 200 people.
The vehicle was not registered to either of the adult occupants, according to DPS. A vehicle theft task force officer with DPS was called to determine if the vehicle was stolen. The vehicle was not stolen and the trooper issued the driver a civil traffic citation.
The female driver gave the trooper documents that were inconsistent with the vehicle’s registration, according to DPS. She also gave the trooper a foreign identification the trooper suspected could be fraudulent. A Customs and Border Protection officer was called to help determine whether the foreign identification was authentic.
Border Patrol agents arrested three people on immigration violations and one man on suspicion of impeding an investigation, the Border Patrol said in a statement Wednesday.
A video posted on Facebook showed a man crawling under an agent’s vehicle to try to stop the agent from driving away. The man was arrested and released, according to the Border Patrol.
The Border Patrol did not release the names of the people arrested for immigration violations, but local immigrant-rights activists have said they were Glenda de la Vega Fernandez, Jesus Antonio Torres, and 12-year-old Dariana Torres de la Vega. The family has lived in Tucson for 11 years and have two other children, ages 10 and 6.
The family was transferred from Border Patrol custody to ICE custody shortly after noon Thursday. They were transferred together, Robert Bushell, special operations supervisor at Border Patrol, told reporters Thursday.
