ICE Detains Man Driving His Pregnant Wife to the Hospital

Officials say the man was wanted in Mexico on homicide charges.

Update, 8/19: ICE subsequently stated that Joel Arrona is wanted by the Mexican government on homicide charges. A legal representative for Arrona told the Washington Post that “he believed his client was not suspected of crimes within the United States, and denies criminal charges in Mexico.”

A California man just wanted to stop for gas as he drove his pregnant wife to the hospital to give birth. Instead, Joel Arrona is now in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement custody, and a newborn baby is separated from his father.

According to CBS2 News in Los Angeles, ICE officers approached Arrona and Maria del Carmen Venegas at the gas station Wednesday. Venegas, who has five children, told the news channel that the officers asked her and Arrona for identification. After Arrona told officers he had left his identification at his nearby residence, the officers placed Arrona into custody. Venegas then drove herself to the hospital to deliver the baby. She told CBS2 that her husband had never been in stopped before and didn’t have a criminal record.

“My husband needs to be here,” Venegas told CBS2. “He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away.”

 In a statement, ICE said: 

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.

During the Trump administration, there has been a surge in ICE arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal records using routine stops and sweeps. NBC News reported this week that arrests of noncriminal immigrants by immigration officers more than tripled during Trump’s first 14 months in office. By comparison, ICE arrests of immigrants with past criminal convictions grew 18 percent over the same period.

During that time, the Trump administration has engaged in a so-called zero-tolerance crackdown on illegal border crossings, resulting in the separation of children from their parents and then in a chaotic reunification process. More than 550 children remain separated from their parents.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate