Two anti-immigration protestors are facing felony charges after they allegedly attempted to thwart the arrest of a twice-deported illegal immigrant criminal in Detroit, Mich., on Monday.
The ordeal centered on Marcos Fabian Arita Bautista, a twice-deported illegal immigrant from Honduras who fled from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to a home near Joy and Livernois streets Monday morning, The Detroit News reports.
Members of a Department of Homeland Security task force secured a warrant and raided the home, arrested Bautista, and loaded him in a black Nissan Titan as protestors with Detroit Will Breathe and Detroit People’s Assembly gathered outside, where they screamed at ICE agents while recording the arrest.
When an officer attempted to leave the scene in a Nissan Titan through an open field, 36-year-old Detroit resident Roman Gomez-Ocadiz jumped in his truck to drive alongside the Nissan, before pulling ahead to cut off the vehicle, according to ICE.
“Gomez-Ocadiz obstructed, impeded and/or interfered with (the officer’s) exit, causing (the officer) to slam on his brakes and avoid hitting Gomez-Ocadiz’s vehicle or other protesters,” read an affidavit cited by The News. “Due to Gomez-Ocadiz’s actions, (the officer) had to put his vehicle in reverse and exit the field with the arrestee using a different route.”
Gomez-Ocadiz bailed from his truck and attempted to flee the scene on foot with federal agents giving chase, but was apprehended shortly after when an agent took him down with a taser, according to the court filing.
Authorities impounded Gomez-Ocadiz’s vehicle, and he was officially arrested by federal agents when he attempted to retrieve it at the impound lot, though officials contend he initially resisted arrest.
Other protesters at the home who attempted to approach officers at the scene were pepper sprayed by one of the several Detroit Police officers deployed to control the crowd of about two dozen.
A Detroit Police spokesman told the City Council on Tuesday “some of them had metal pipes, a lead pipe,” according to The News.
“They were banging on drums,” he said. “They made repeated attempts to get over to the property where our federal partners were at the time.”
One of the protestors was arrested for malicious destruction of property involving a federal vehicle at the scene, as well, WJBK reports.
Several folks who spoke at Tuesday’s City Council meeting identified the second person arrested as Arely Plascencia, who is now at the Detroit Detention Center facing potential felony and misdemeanor charges.
“Arita (Bautista) has been removed from this country twice and fled from law enforcement officers to try and escape a situation of his own making,” ICE Field Office Director Kevin Raycraft said in a statement cited by WDIV. “If you have a final order of removal and there is no legal pathway for you to remain in the United States, ICE must lawfully carry out that removal.”
According to ICE, Bautista crossed into the U.S. illegally near Falfurrias, Texas, in September 2015, and was deported to Honduras. Bautista was back in February 2018 near Hidalgo, Texas, where he was again arrested and deported to Honduras.
By 2022, Bautista was in Dauphin County, Penn., where he pleaded guilty to driving an unregistered vehicle, and operating without financial responsibility or title, ICE reports.
Brian Silberstein, an organizer with Detroit Will Breathe, complained to the Detroit Free Press about the city’s police force working to protect ICE agents, despite a policy against enforcing federal immigration laws.
“A big question I have is why was there so much DPD presence there in the first place?” Silberstein said. “(Detroit Police Chief Todd) Bettison keeps saying DPD doesn’t work with ICE and yet here they are assisting, protecting and doing clean-up.”
Bettison told the news site “a federal agency requested the Detroit police presence to keep the peace as they were executing a federal search warrant for a wanted individual.”
“The Detroit Police Department does not engage in immigration enforcement,” he said. “Our mission is public safety for both law enforcement and the public. We support peaceful protesting but will not tolerate any action that puts officers or anyone else in danger.”
ICE echoed that sentiment in a statement on the June 30 arrests.
“It is a crime to obstruct or otherwise interfere with an ICE arrest and anyone involved may be subject to prosecution under federal law. In addition, encouraging others to interfere or attempt to obstruct an arrest is extremely reckless and places all parties in jeopardy.”
Nelson Garay, with the Detroit People’s Assembly that helped organize the obstruction, told WJBK that blocking federal agents with a vehicle is not something they recommend, then attempted to justify the incident.
“As an organization, we don’t endorse hopping into your cars to try to cut off federal vehicles as they drive away,” he said. “But at the same time, this is an expression of folks who are incredibly frustrated.”
“We’re not any radical action as an organization, but at the same time if people decided to take their own, we’re not here to condemn them either,” Garay said.
