U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pointed guns at and then smashed the window of a car carrying a couple and their 1-month-old baby during an afternoon arrest in Alamosa last week, video footage shows.
The family was on their way home from the Alamosa County courthouse when three unmarked SUVs began to follow them, said Maya England, who was in the back seat with the infant. England said the cars behind them turned on their sirens and flashed their lights, and the one in front of them began to swerve.
The cars boxed them in at an intersection, according to video England captured on her phone.
An ICE agent exited the car parked in front of them with both hands on his gun pointed at the couple as he walked toward their car. The agent tried to open the driver’s side car door. Jose Aguilera, the driver, rolled down the window a few inches to communicate with the agent.
“Open the door!” the agent said.
“What is he being pulled over for?” England, 21, yelled repeatedly.
Another agent, who approached the vehicle from behind wearing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection hat, began banging a baton on the window, shattering the glass.
“There’s a child!” England yelled. “There’s a baby!” she repeated.
“Open the fucking door,” the first agent said.
“He has a 1-month-old,” England yelled.
“You should have stopped,” one of the agents said.
Aguilera, 33, opened the door and exited the car, fragments of glass on his shirt and pants. The CBP agent kept a gun pointed at him.
“Can I ask why he’s being detained?” England repeated as the agents handcuffed Aguilera.
“He has an immigration warrant,” one of the agents said.
England asked to see the warrant and one of the agents said she could come to the office. The agents led Aguilera to an unmarked SUV. England followed the car carrying Aguilera to the nondescript ICE holding center on State Street, she said, but no one answered her pleas at the door.
Aguilera later called her from ICE’s detention center in Aurora. England last heard from Aguilera on Monday evening. As of Tuesday evening, he no longer appeared on ICE’s inmate locator website and she did not know where he was.
ICE is not allowed to arrest people who are going to or coming from a courthouse, under a 2020 Colorado law. ICE did not immediately respond to questions about the arrest.
Spokesperson for Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office Lawrence Pacheco said the state law can be enforced by the attorney general. Pacheco said he can’t comment or confirm investigations.
Aguilera’s arrest in Alamosa is one of the latest examples of immigration agents being recorded using forceful tactics as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy. During arrests across the U.S., ICE has broken car windows as crying children and pregnant women are inside.
According to an investigation by ProPublica, there have been at least 50 documented instances of immigration agents breaking vehicle windows in the first six months of President Donald Trump’s term. Journalists found only eight such incidents from the prior decade.
Agents are using other kinds of force, too.
At a New York City courthouse last week, an ICE agent threw a mother to the floor in front of her two children. The Department of Homeland Security initially suspended the agent, but then returned him to duty.
Earlier this month, an ICE agent shot and killed a man in his car who had just dropped off his 3-year-old son at day care in Chicago. The agency said the man had resisted arrest and dragged an agent with his car. Video obtained by The Washington Post shows the man driving away from the officers in his car and later shows an ICE agent with a tear in his jeans say he “got dragged a little bit” and describe his injuries as “nothing major.”
“Deeply disturbing,” immigration lawyer says
England said she had been concerned about Aguilera getting arrested, but did not expect to get their car window smashed. England was born in Fort Morgan. Aguilera, who is from Mexico, came to the U.S. when he was about 20 years old, England said. Aguilera works as a carpenter and handyman, England said.
At the time of the arrest, England, Aguilera and their infant son were returning home from a court hearing for a drunken driving charge that Aguilera is contesting.
A search of Aguilera’s name and date of birth in the Colorado Bureau of Investigation background check system shows that in addition to the misdemeanor drunken driving charge, Aguilera was also also accused of two related minor traffic offenses.
A search for Aguilera’s ID number in the immigration court system shows he was ordered removed from the U.S. in February 2015.
After Aguilera’s arrest, England has struggled to care for their infant son alone. Aguilera was the sole earner for the household, and England is left wondering how she’ll make ends meet while she’s still nursing the baby.
The car Aguilera was driving at the time of the arrest was his uncle’s, England said, and now the door doesn’t close properly. She has cuts and scratches on her legs from the glass shards, she said.
“It’s happening to a lot of families but not a lot are speaking up about it,” she said. “This was wrong, this is not OK.”
ICE agents are not allowed to enter private spaces without a judicial warrant or consent from someone in the space. Agents also aren’t allowed to use excessive force.
Tim Macdonald, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union Colorado, called the video of the arrest “deeply disturbing.”
“It should trouble any American,” he said.
ICE agents are given broad authority to carry out immigration enforcement, said Jennifer Whitlock, Senior Policy Counsel at The National Immigration Law Center.
She said, “this agency is pushing the limits of that authority” with arrests like Aguilera’s.
Hans Meyer, an immigration, civil rights and criminal defense lawyer in Colorado, said he is representing several people who were arrested in situations where ICE agents smashed their windows and threatened them at gunpoint to get out of their cars.
Oftentimes, immigrants do not have the time and resources to try to hold ICE agents who hurt them accountable, he said.
Meyer recommends people contacted by ICE during a traffic stop not consent to entry to the car, but also not resist. He said people can ask if they are free to leave, remain silent, and ask to speak to an attorney if they are being detained.