Máxima Guerrero isn’t the only Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient from Arizona in fear of deportation after attending a protest against the state-sanctioned killing of Black people by police. Like Guerrero, Johan Montes Cuevas was arrested by police as he was leaving a Phoenix demonstration last month, Mother Jones reports. The 22-year-old was charged with rioting, even though “a judge in Phoenix found that there was no probable cause for most of the more than 100 arrests from the night Montes Cuevas was arrested,” the report said. He now worries that the arrest and charge could lead to losing his already tenuous DACA protections.
“Attending a protest is such an individual choice, but it has very different consequences if you’re a citizen or not,” Aliento advocacy group leader and DACA recipient Reyna Montoya told Mother Jones. She said young immigrants “want to be there for our Black brothers and sisters who are being brutalized by the police at the moment,” but also fear a circumstance U.S. citizens don’t have to worry about. “I’m legitimately very scared of the consequences for some of the DACA and undocumented students I work with,” she said.
Arizona Republic reported that Guerrero was also arrested by police and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as she was leaving the Phoenix protest. A a longtime organizer with immigrant rights organization Puente Human Rights Movement, she was released from custody only after a massive push of calls to Sheriff Paul Penzone, Phoenix police chief Jeri Williams, and Mayor Kate Gallego. “It took letters of support from at least two state legislators, a state senator, three Latino Phoenix City Council members and more than a dozen other Arizona leaders” to help win her release from ICE, the report said.
“Sandra Castro Solis, who also works at Puente, said Guerrero was there as a legal observer, ‘making sure people’s First Amendment rights weren’t violated while protesting,’” Mother Jones said. Beyond stomping on the rights of protesters, the arrests further shine a light on the need to end the kind of police collaboration that resulted in Montes Cuevas and Guerrero getting thrown to ICE. “In Arizona, police and ICE have worked closely together for decades,” Mother Jones reported. “In fact, many protesters in Phoenix last week not only demanded an end to police brutality but also urged the Phoenix Police Department to end its collaboration with ICE.”
But in other examples, the mass deportation agency has still found a way to try to detain protesters without the assistance of police, like in the case of the ICE special agents who harassed a Latino protester in New York City last week. "It's just really concerning to see ICE out on the street, grabbing somebody who's peacefully protesting before the curfew, who was doing absolutely nothing wrong," Immigrant Defense Project attorney Terry Lawson told NBC News. "The use of force also seems very troubling and the fact that he's a man of Puerto Rican descent is really concerning because it raises questions about racial profiling."
Montes Cuevas said that following his arrest and eventual release from ICE custody, he has to get a lawyer to assist in his case. He’s also been forced by ICE to wear an ankle bracelet. “It feels like I’m a criminal when I’m not,” he told Mother Jones. “It feels like I’ve done something so wrong or committed the biggest crime ever, and now I’m marked with this around my ankle.”
Police collaboration with ICE must end—and so must both agencies’ out-of-control actions against communities. In response to the kinds of risks facing undocumented immigrants seeking to protest police violence against Black women and men, immigrant youth-led advocacy group United We Dream tweeted tips to help demonstrators more safely make their voices heard.