See Also: Joe Arpaio Protesters Arrested During Public Demonstration
The four people claiming to be undocumented immigrants who were arrested Tuesday during a civil-disobedience protest against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio have been released from jail.
While Arpaio was on the witness stand in the federal racial-profiling case, scores of demonstrators from the human-rights group Puente blocked traffic just outside the Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse in downtown Phoenix protesting the sheriff.
All four sat in an intersection, while police warned them they would be arrested if they refused to move. They all ignored instructions from police and were arrested at the scene.
The three women who participated in the civil-disobedience act were released last night, after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reviewed their immigration statuses and lifted the holds against them.
Because they were not considered high-priority cases, the woman were not transferred to ICE custody, an official says.
Miguel Guerra, a 37-year-old undocumented immigrant who also was part of the demonstration, was just released today from ICE custody.
Guerra says he was transferred to immigration officials' custody after he refused to sign documents accepting his misdemeanor charges that resulted from the protest.
ICE urged him to sign his deportation order once he was in the agency's custody, he claims. Since he refused to do so, he was freed after he paid a $1,500 bail fee, but now he is scheduled to appear in front an immigration judge.
"I haven't gone through the [immigration] documents so I don't know what's next," Guerra tells New Times. "I'm just very excited that I just got out."
