Mesa family says ICE detained visiting relative despite valid visa

A Mexican man visiting family in Arizona for the holidays has been in immigration detention since Tuesday — despite having proper documents and legal authority to be in the country, two of his family members told Phoenix New Times.

On Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 27-year-old Edwar Omar Mezquita Gonzalez in San Tan Valley after Pinal County Sheriff’s deputies stopped the truck his brother was driving. The brother, whose name New Times is withholding at the family’s request, was not detained and has a green card.

Gonzalez now faces the possibility of deportation back to Mexico, which could result in his being barred from reentering the United States. ICE acknowledged an email seeking information about Gonzalez’s arrest, but has not responded substantively.

On Tuesday morning, Gonzalez was riding shotgun in his older brother’s white GMC Sierra truck when they drove by a half-dozen police vehicles lining the side of the road. The pair gawked at the police activity as they passed, according to family members, and Gonzalez pulled out his phone to film as ICE agents and sheriff’s deputies detained a landscaper.

According to two family members — the brother’s wife, who asked to be identified by her nickname, Vale; and Sam Cooley, an extended family member and an activist with the People’s First Project — a Pinal County Sheriff vehicle then pulled out of the line and stopped the brother’s truck. A sheriff’s deputy told the brother he was pulled over for obscured plates and improper window tint, Vale said. While the deputy spoke to the brother, an ICE agent in another vehicle pulled in right behind them.

The ICE agent asked both men to present their documents. The brother presented his green card while Gonzalez presented a temporary travel visa for Mexican citizens. Vale said the ICE agent then claimed that Gonzalez was working in violation of his visa and detained him, though Vale claimed he was obeying the visa’s terms.

“My husband tried to explain to them, ‘He’s my little brother. He’s only here visiting,’” Vale told New Times. “You guys can’t take him. He has all this documentation.”

‘In a work vehicle’

New Times has viewed Gonzalez’s documentation. In August, he applied for and received a Border Crossing Card, which is issued to Mexican nationals with strong ties to Mexico, indicating they plan to return to their home country. The card allows Mexican nationals to make short visits for temporary pleasure or business to the U.S. border zone — which extends from the border to a little north of Tucson — for up to 30 days if they enter by land or sea. 

New Times has viewed a photo of the card issued to Gonzalez, who lives and works in Rocky Point (also known as Puerto Peñasco) in Mexico.

If Border Crossing Card holders wish to stay longer and travel further, they must complete the Form I-94 upon entry into the U.S. Gonzalez did that when he entered the country in September, according to an online portal on the Customs and Border Protection website. The form allows Border Crossing Card holders to travel anywhere in the country and stay for up to six months, which would cap Gonzalez’s stay at the end of March. However, if cardholders seek employment during their stay, they may face revocation of the document, deportation and may even be barred from future U.S. entry.

According to Vale, her husband was off that day and he was running errands with Gonzalez while the latter was in town for an extended holiday stay. They had just grabbed coffee and were in San Tan Valley to drop off a broken paint machine before getting breakfast.

However, immigration attorneys not involved in Gonzalez’s case speculated ICE may have claimed he was working due to the circumstances of his arrest. While the brothers insisted Gonzalez wasn’t working, the ICE agent said he was in a “work area in a work vehicle,” Vale said. The brother’s truck is outfitted with ladders on racks above the trunk. While the brother does use it for construction jobs, Vale said, he also uses it to run errands and pick up his kids.

However, being stopped in what is ostensibly a work truck may make it difficult for Gonzalez to claim he wasn’t working, according to immigration attorney Salvador Macias. “The hardest part is overcoming the allegation that he wasn’t working, considering he was in the truck,” Macias wrote in a text message. Delia Salvatierra, another immigration attorney, noted that “visitors visas are non-immigrant visas, so you have to show non-immigrant intent.”

Gonzalez’s arrest also appears to be an example of Pinal County’s new effort to coordinate with ICE. The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office has had ICE in its jails since 2008 through a 287(g) agreement and the county attorney’s office was recently granted 287(g) authority to conduct limited enforcement of immigration law under the auspices of ICE. The truck’s allegedly obscured plate and allegedly overly tinted windows — which Vale said she doubts were in the state the sheriff deputy claimed — gave the deputy an opening to stop the truck and cleared the way for ICE to ask for documents.

In a statement to New Times, Pinal County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Samuel Salzwedel said agents from Homeland Security Investigations — a division of ICE – “are frequently in San Tan Valley and available to assist deputies when contacted.”

‘He has no information’

Gonzalez’s brother was allowed to leave. Before he did, he wrote his phone number on Gonzalez’s arm.

Gonzalez was transported to ICE’s Phoenix field office, nearly 50 miles away, where he has been held ever since. Gonzalez has been able to call his brother multiple times using a payphone in the field office. New Times has attempted to get in touch with Gonzalez, but Vale said the only person he has been able to call is his brother. She has also spoken to him through her husband’s phone.

Cooley said Gonzalez has been “miserable” in ICE custody. Vale said he has also struggled to get information from guards at the field office about the status of his detention. He’s been told that he just has to wait his turn to talk to an immigration officer. “He’s just been waiting,” she said. “He has no information. He has no update to give us, because he doesn’t know himself.” 

Cooley added that Gonzalez is strongly considering self-deporting to avoid being sent for an extended period to an ICE detention center in Eloy or Florence. However, doing so could result in Gonzalez being barred from reentering the country ever again, Salvatierra wrote to New Times.

“We’re just so afraid that he’s so traumatized by being in jail overnight that he’s going to self-deport,” Cooley said. “Then he can’t come back here, and he loses half of his family.”

Gonzalez has no children, but he takes care of all of the large, tight-knit family around him, Cooley said. In Rocky Point, Gonzalez cares for both of his parent and his grandmother. He also frequently visits his brother, sister-in-law, nieces and nephews in Mesa and also has family in Phoenix and Colorado. He comes up to the Phoenix area multiple times a year from Mexico to celebrate holidays, birthdays and special events, Cooley said. The weekend before his arrest, the family picked names out of a hat for Secret Santa.

Gonzalez does not have an attorney, but his family is attempting to free him from detention before Christmas. His brother and other family members tried to speak with ICE employees at the field office but were not given much information. Family members also reached out to the office of Democratic Rep. Greg Stanton, whose constituent services team is now assisting in this case, according to his spokesperson.