Tucson DACA recipient detained after agents 'aggressively' enter home, family says

The parents and husband of Karla Toledo, 31, said federal agents took Toledo into custody before 8:30 a.m. Monday, as she was getting ready to leave for work.

Toledo's parents, Veronica and Victor Ortiz, said Toledo has no criminal record and that her status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, was up to date. Former President Barack Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program through executive action in 2012 to protect from deportation immigrants such as Toledo who were brought to the U.S. as children and grew up in this country but have no legal immigration status.

Veronica Ortiz tearfully pleaded for her daughter's release Monday afternoon, standing outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on South Country Club Road, where dozens of supporters had gathered to protest Toledo's arrest and demand her release.

"My daughter doesn't deserve this. She's a hard worker, and a woman who has always helped her community," Ortiz said, speaking in Spanish. "She's not a criminal. ... She's a blessing for our family."

Ortiz said she and her daughter arrived in the U.S. when Toledo was 1 year old, after they moved from Obregón, Sonora.

"She worked in nonprofit foundations, where she helped families pay rent, pay bills, and have food. She's a valuable member of the community," Ortiz said. "The only thing I want to tell my daughter is she doesn't deserve to be in that place, that she's a strong woman and that she should continue to be strong. God has a plan for her, whatever it may be, and we will always be there to support her."

Multiple federal agents rushed into Toledo's home Monday morning, security video from Toledo's home shows. Her husband, who asked that his name not be used, said after he hurried inside and closed the door behind him, agents pushed on the front door so hard that one of the agents fell onto the floor inside.

On the video, Toledo can be heard asking repeatedly, and loudly, if agents had a warrant to enter her house. Agents never showed a warrant and arrested Toledo in front of her home, her family said.

An ICE spokesperson said the agency couldn't immediately respond to the Star's Monday afternoon query about the basis for Toledo's arrest.

A judicial warrant signed by a judge — not simply issued by ICE — is generally required to enter a home without permission; otherwise it's a violation of the 4th Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, advocates say.

Local attorney River Feldmann said she tried to approach the ICE field office Monday to offer legal support to Toledo, but Tucson Police Department officers on the scene refused her entry. Officers on site told the Arizona Daily Star they were maintaining the peace and protecting private property.

In a message to the Star, Feldmann said TPD "unconstitutionally blocked access to counsel" by keeping her from approaching the ICE office.

In a Monday night email, TPD spokesman Officer James Horton said ICE had closed the field office to the public, and that officers on-site had been told the detainee was either not at the field office, or was in the process of being transferred to another facility. "The attorney would need to contact the arresting agency, which was ICE/DHS, to access their client to provide counsel," Horton said.

Tucson's Carolina Silva is executive director of Scholarships A-Z, a nonprofit that supports undocumented youth and those with DACA status in accessing higher education. Silva said ICE appeared to be seeking to justify Toledo’s arrest by claiming she didn't "report back" to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) after a trip to Mexico two years ago.

But Silva said that requirement doesn’t exist. Toledo had traveled under the "advance parole" protection for DACA recipients, which assured she'd be allowed back into the U.S., and she returned to Arizona within the allotted time frame, Silva said.

"They’re claiming she didn’t report back to USCIS, but that has never been a requirement. There’s no process to do that," Silva told the Star. "After talking to lawyers, I guess our only explanation is they’re trying to use any excuse they have to detain DACA recipients."

Tucson Democratic U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva arrived at Tucson's ICE field office around 4 p.m. and confirmed Toledo was being held there, as of Monday afternoon — something her family hadn't known before then — and visited with her.

"Karla has legal status in this country," Grijalva said in an Instagram post. "She is a member of our community, has dedicated herself to education, advocacy, is regularly an interpreter for other people."

During Monday's field office visit, "I was able to at least make sure that she’s physically OK," Grijalva said. "We’ll continue to hold this administration accountable. This is horrible. We’re praying for you, Karla."

Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has started targeting immigrants with protection from deportation under the Obama-era program known as DACA. The 2012 measure was meant as a temporary way to protect so-called "Dreamers" — immigrants brought to the U.S. without authorization when they were still children — until Congress could pass legislation providing a path to permanency for the population.

Feldmann said Toledo's detention appears to be unlawful.

"Typically, ICE only detains people with DACA if they have a serious criminal conviction, or sometimes a prior removal order, neither of which are the case here," Feldmann said. "So to me it sounds like an unlawful detention, based on what I know."

ICE appears to be "escalating" its efforts to deport immigrants with DACA protections, Feldmann said.

"I don't want to fear-monger," she said. "I think there's different degrees of risk, and DACA is lower on the list. But they're definitely escalating attacks on this group of people that lawfully have received protecting from the government. The attacks seem to be increasing, regardless of what the policies state."

Support for permanency for DACA recipients used to be fairly bipartisan, but Republicans have been largely silent as the second Trump administration has started arresting DACA recipients. 

Tucson Republican U.S. Rep. Juan Ciscomani has previously expressed support for creating a path to permanency for DACA recipients. But when questioned by the Star at a press event last September, Ciscomani didn't directly say whether he still supported a path to citizenship. He also stopped short of criticizing DHS's early moves to target DACA enrollees, which began last summer.

"Our DACA students deserve a shot at the American Dream, and we need to do all that we can to be able to” do that, Ciscomani said last September.