Report: ICE arrested five immigrants in Albuquerque (The New Mexican)

Report: ICE arrested five immigrants in Albuquerque
Posted: Saturday, February 18, 2017 11:15 pm | Updated: 11:41 pm, Sat Feb 18, 2017.

By Uriel J. Garcia
The New Mexican

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week arrested five immigrants in Albuquerque, including a pregnant woman, a day after it conducted a raid in Las Cruces that prompted outrage from advocates across the state, according to the Mexican Consulate for New Mexico.

Efrén Leyva Acevedo, the Mexican consul general in Albuquerque, told KASA-TV, the Spanish-language Telemundo affiliate, that on Thursday, five unidentified people were arrested by ICE.

“Here five people were arrested, three people at a tire shop, and among them, a pregnant woman,” Acevedo said. “And a fifth person they were looking for.”

While ICE has said these recent operations in New Mexico and other parts of the U.S. are routine and are targeting undocumented immigrants who were previously ordered deported or who have a criminal record, the actions have heightened fears among immigrant communities across the country. President Donald Trump, who has made immigration enforcement a high priority in his administration, has taken credit for such operations.

U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a New Mexico Democrat who also is the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chairwoman, said last week at a Washington, D.C., news conference that because of Trump’s immigration policies, “all immigrant communities are at risk.” Her comments came Thursday after a meeting with ICE officials.

There have been no reported ICE raids in Santa Fe, but federal court records show that ICE officials took at least two men into custody last month who had pending court cases.

A complaint filed in federal District Court in Albuquerque for Carlos Roberto Navarrete, 31, who Santa Fe police had arrested in late December on suspicion of burglarizing a downtown bike shop, says ICE officials took him into custody at the Santa Fe County jail Dec. 28. The complaint also says Navarrete had been ordered deported previously and was taken back to Mexico in August 2014.

In another case, ICE filed a complaint against Jairo Tena-Tena, 30, who Santa Fe police had arrested on suspicion of shoplifting at a local Wal-Mart, leaving his children unattended at home and possession of a controlled substance.

He told police he didn’t have money to buy medicine for his children, so a man paid him to steal some items from the store, the police report says.

Police later found Tena-Tena’s children — ages 10, 8 and 1 — at home watching a movie while their mother was at work, the report says.

The ICE complaint, filed in federal court in Albuquerque, says Tena-Tena had been deported to Mexico in 2009 and 2012. In those previous cases, court documents show, he was arrested on suspicion of DWI and giving alcohol to a minor.