Possible Arizona immigration officials posed as city utility workers while attempting to detain an undocumented immigrant at his home, a witness to the altercation claims.
Two men dressed as electric company workers turned up in a south Tucson neighborhood Wednesday morning and began asking residents if they knew a Honduran man who lived on the street for over a decade, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
The men claimed to be from Tucson Electric Power (TED) and told neighbors they were trying to provide the man with city services he’d asked for, neighbor Christine Cariño told the outlet.
“He said, ‘We’re trying to find somebody that wanted a free estimate,’” claimed Cariño, who was watering her plants across the street.
But she claimed the men were not wearing proper TED uniforms — one had a reflective work shirt and the other a black t-shirt — and became suspicious that the men weren’t who they said they were as they pressed for information about her neighbor.
Then when they turned towards the Honduran man’s home she claimed to see a badge hidden under one of their shirts — and asked if they were from the Department of Homeland Security.
“He just smiled. So I took off running,” Cariño said.
The men had by then been let into the Honduran man’s yard across the street by his stepson, and Cariño started yelling at him not to let them in.
“Don’t open the door, they don’t have a warrant!” she was heard yelling in video from the incident, obtained by KGUN 9. “They’re lying, they’re not in a uniform!”
Immigration officials aren’t allowed to enter people’s homes without consent from an occupant if they don’t have a warrant — and Cariño claimed the individuals appeared to be faking their identity to trick their way into the man’s home.
Speaking through the home’s door, the agents said the Honduran had missed immigration court dates, but he denied that and refused to come out.
The family later corroborated Cariño’s version of events to KGUN 9.
It remains unclear whether the men Cariño encountered were from ICE, but a spokesperson for the agency told the Arizona Daily Star “It’s an ongoing investigation” while declining to comment on the allegations of impersonation.
Such tactics have allegedly been used by immigration officials across the country in the past, according to the outlet, and have previously been called unconstitutional in a 2020 American Civil Liberties Union complaint out of California. That case is still pending.
But Cariño thinks it should be illegal.
“That should be considered a crime, impersonating a company to try to remove somebody from a home,” she told the Arizona Daily Star. “If he had a warrant, the situation would have been different. Do it the right way.”
South Tucson’s mayor agrees and characterized Cariño’s reaction as admirable.
“That lady is a hero,” Mayor Roxanna Valenzuela said. “We need to protect each other. Now is not the time to be silent.”
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