Called to see kids, Bonita Springs couple is detained (The News-Press)

Called to see kids, Bonita Springs couple is detained

By JANINE ZEITLIN • jzeitlin@news-press.com • March 1, 2009

Mexico native Victor Arriaga has lived in this country more than a decade. He and his Guatemalan wife, Elida, are undocumented.

A week ago, Victor Arriaga said a translator for child welfare case manager Pam Stevens called the Bonita Springs couple to Naples for a Thursday visit with their grandsons, 2 and 1, who are in foster care.

Stevens works for Family Preservation Services, a provider through the Children's Network of Southwest Florida, contracted by the Department of Children and Families to run foster care.

The Arriagas' friend Veronica Rodriguez, 32, drove them to the visit, where she said Stevens questioned her about the pair's legal status and why she was driving.

Soon after, Rodriguez and Victor Arriaga said Collier sheriff's officials arrived to detain the pair on immigration matters.

"It's entrapment," said Rodriguez, director of a migrant child care agency. "They told them to go see the children and then, not knowing, they bring in these officers."

Kristi Lester, a sheriff's spokeswoman, said there were no criminal charges with her agency for the couple, although she noted an immigration hold on Elida Arriaga and a notice to appear in immigration court for Victor Arriaga.

Lester said directives came from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which had an an active warrant for Elida Arriaga. She said the children weren't purposely used to lure the grandparents.

"It was just that they knew they were going to be there at that particular time based on the information," she said.

Still, Victor Arriaga, a 39-year-old construction worker, believes his grandchildren were used as pawns. Authorities released him Thursday, he said, to care for his 12- and 15-year-old children, who were born in this country.

He heard his wife was sent to a federal detention facility and may be deported in days.

"My wife and I have never had any problems before," Victor Arriaga said. "We're not criminals."