Barnarrdino was very lucky. But the experience stayed with him.
"I'm honestly very afraid. Every morning, I make the sign of the cross and say, 'God, it's up to you,'" he says. When asked if he would report a crime to the police if he witnessed or was the victim of one, he says no: "For what? To be asked for my papers? I don't think so."
Morgan Bellinger
Phoenix lawyer Daniel Ortega
Morgan Bellinger
Activist Alfredo Gutierrez works the crowd outside M.D. Pruitt's furniture store, the site of a weekly immigration protest.
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The Guatemalan consulate confirms that Barnarrdino is registered with the office and has valid identification.
Undocumented immigrants may not understand their due process rights, but they do understand that Arpaio is a man to be feared. Many have even stopped going to church for fear of getting stopped on the way.
Reverend Sau'l Montiel of Epworth United Methodist Church and his colleagues at the Valley Interfaith Project say they've seen a decline in attendance. Connie Andersen of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church says her congregation feels it in the collection plate. Montiel sees it in the pews as well.
"I would say about one-third have stopped coming," he says.
Those that do show up have fearful prayers.
"The prayer requests on Sunday all say, 'Let us pray not to be arrested this week,'" says Montiel. "That hurts me so much as a pastor."
Andersen knows of people who won't even send their children, who are legal citizens, to youth group anymore, and she worried that her church's annual Virgin de Guadalupe celebration would not happen this year because people are too afraid to leave the house.
"This is a faith tradition," she says. "This is affecting our ability to practice our faith and do it openly."
Andersen was right. Attendance at the Virgin de Guadalupe celebration on December 12 was noticeably down.
"We weren't as packed as usual," she says. "Normally people are hanging from the choir loft to get a place."
Immigrant-related violence is on the rise, according to DPS, Phoenix Police and ICE officials, and it isn't all related to smuggling. Kidnappers know the undocumented family members of their prey would rather figure out a way to pay the ransom than involve the police.
Vincente is the owner of a seafood restaurant in central Phoenix. About a month ago, he was the victim of an attempted kidnapping.
As he was leaving work one night, a group of men in ski masks followed him to his car. When he tried to drive home, they opened fire, shooting at him 18 times, hitting him once in the shoulder. He managed to escape — he says "only God knows why," though his nine years in the Mexican army might have something to do with it — to the safety of his home, where he decided to call the police only because he knew he would die if he did not.
According to the police report, bullet fragments were found all over the road at the scene. No one has been arrested. "There is not enough suspect information to help determine any identity," the report states.
After the attack, Vincente's brother bought a gun because he also owned a restaurant and was afraid of the kidnappers. He was recently caught with the gun and deported for owning it. Ironically, Vincente says, his brother always hated weapons. Undeterred, Vincente says he is armed all the time now. He's afraid the men could come back.
"If they try to kidnap me again, they will kill me. So I will kill them instead," he says. "I'm not going to let them get me. I have a family."
This is not an isolated incident. He knows three other undocumented business owners who have been attacked in the same way. None of the others involved the police; instead, their families paid the ransom.
"They know we can't go to the police, and the police think it's only the coyotes, and it's not," he says. "I know a guy whose brother was kidnapped and he pay the money. He pay $100,000 dollars and they give him back. He don't call the police. He just stay quiet and pay and he is alive."
Though the police haven't found a suspect, Sgt. Joe Tranter, a Phoenix Police Department spokesman, says an attempted kidnapping is likely.
"At face value, if he says he was kidnapped he probably was," he says. "We've got a situation that is out of control."
Troy Henley of ICE says his office has noticed an increase in these kinds of violent crimes by and against immigrants.
"We don't have numbers, but it seems to me the violence associated with human smuggling seems to be up," he says. "We get a lot of referrals from police departments in other places where the relatives will get a call and the person will say, 'I'm in Phoenix. I'm being held in a house and they told me if you don't pay $100,000 they will cut my ears off or cut my fingers off."
Kidnappers know their victims have nowhere to turn. And, according to Fred Zumbo from DPS, the kidnappers are organized criminals who don't care much about possible deportation. They know the way back.
