Activist arrested while filming ICE says Mesa Police acted within seconds, renewing concerns over cooperation

Two days before Thanksgiving, in Mesa, Arizona, Martín Hernández, the organizing director for United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99, started his day like he usually does: driving to the union hall.

But his routine that Nov. 25 shifted when he received an alert from Puente Human Rights Movement’s Migra Watch reporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity near his neighborhood. As a longtime immigrant-rights activist, Hernández decided to check the area, document any activity and inform impacted immigrants about their constitutional rights.

When he arrived at the reported location, it was empty. As he continued to explore the nearby area, he soon spotted a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent and four Mesa Police Department officers gathered in a parking lot near Country Club Drive and Brown Road. HSI is the investigative arm of ICE.

While recording video on his phone, Hernández drove into the parking lot with his window rolled down, hoping to learn more about what he saw as a collaboration between Mesa Police and ICE.

Within 30 seconds of verbally engaging with the officers — where he asked, “Is the City of Mesa working with ICE?” — one of the officers opened Hernández’s truck door to pull him out and place him in handcuffs. One of the Mesa police officers threw Hernández’s still-recording phone into his truck, as seen in a video Hernández shared with CALÓ News.

The officers’ response to Hernández’s question was, “No, not really.” His further questions were not answered, with one of the officers saying, “I don’t answer your questions. You don’t have any business being here. You understand? Do you understand?”

In the video, Mesa police officers told him that he was being arrested for trespassing on private property. The private property in question was a parking lot for various businesses, according to satellite imagery from Google Maps, including a landscaping company, a doctor’s office, a massage parlor, a flooring business and counseling services.

In an interview with CALÓ News, Hernández said he believes he was not given reasonable time to leave the premises after being told he was trespassing, instead receiving a quick three, two, one countdown from an officer before being pulled out of his truck.

“As a union organizer… you interact with the police all the time. I mean, that's part of organizing workers. Employers call the cops and you deal with [the police] on a very regular basis. I don't think — in the 20-plus years organizing workers — I don't think I ever encountered a situation like the one that I had on Nov. 25,” Hernández said.

Hernández believes that being in a parking lot shared by various businesses had little to do with his arrest. Instead, he, along with other activists and legislators who advocated for his release, believes that documenting ICE activity and questioning Mesa police’s interaction with ICE prompted his swift arrest.

“I was exercising my First Amendment rights,” he said.

The Mesa Police Department participates in ICE’s 287(g) program, which authorizes select local officers to carry out certain federal immigration enforcement duties under ICE’s supervision and direction. It is the only police agency in Arizona to have entered into the program.

However, in a statement posted to the police department’s Instagram account on May 29, 2025, in which it clarified what its agreement with ICE entails, Executive Assistant Chief Dan Butler said that Mesa police “do not go out into the community and actively search for people based on immigration status.”

A swift arrest and release

Once handcuffed in a police truck, Hernandez saw a female ICE agent detaining a young woman whom he did not recognize.

“Then I saw how one of the [ICE] agents went to the Mesa cops, and they were doing high-fives type of thing, which I was so disappointed and upset about,” he said. “I don't know if that lady that I saw there, if she had an opportunity to get with a family member and let them know what was happening.”

When asked whether ICE detained a woman the morning of Nov. 25 at 1150 N. Country Club Dr., an ICE spokesperson told CALO News the following:

“You must provide the full name, and A-number of the person(s) arrested or DoB so we can properly research. If you do not have the necessary information, understand that ICE officers risk their lives every day to prioritize public safety by locating, arresting and removing alien offenders and immigration violators from neighborhoods. ICE may arrest, detain and, if found removable by final order, remove any alien in violation of U.S. immigration law, regardless of nationality.”

At the time of publication, CALÓ News was unable to verify the identity of the woman who was detained that day.

Hernandez was released that same day with a citation for trespassing after immigrant rights advocates, community leaders and legislators gathered outside the Mesa Police Department demanding his release.

“The consequences of police departments' involvement with ICE are more than just them being there, assisting or whatever they're doing. There is a bigger consequence — it creates unsafe communities,” Hernandez said.

For Hernández, Mesa police’s 287(g) agreement with ICE and the camaraderie he witnessed between the police officers and ICE agents that day in his neighborhood threatens his community’s trust in police, and therefore, its safety.

“Do I want to report a crime, knowing the way Mesa PD treated me? Absolutely not, right? And that happens to a lot of people, where you say, you know, ‘I'm not gonna get involved, because I’m gonna end up, or I could end up in handcuffs,’ right? So there's a distrust that builds between the community and the police departments, and that's not good for anyone,” he added.

Once taken to a detention center for intake, Hernández was asked where he was born by Mesa police. He declined to answer, to which Hernández said they responded with, “We’re going to find out anyway.”

As part of the 287(g) agreement, Mesa Police practices the jail enforcement model, which, according to the department’s statement from May, means that “if someone is arrested, they are taken to the holding facility, and they are asked their immigration status. If they report back to the Mesa Police Department that they are in the country illegally, [Mesa Police has] an obligation to notify ICE on that topic.”

Hernández said he saw this protocol in action the day he was arrested at the Mesa Police facility when he witnessed a woman — not the one who he saw being detained by ICE — being asked about her legal status in the country. She responded to the Mesa police officer that she was undocumented, according to Hernández.

“ICE agents — they get into the community, they get into the neighborhoods and they disappear people. And unless somebody is able to report that in, people would not know,” Hernandez said.

Hernández’s court date is scheduled for Dec. 22, 2025. He plans to appeal the trespassing citation and stand by his right to document police and ICE activity, protected by the First Amendment.

Alessandra De Zubeldia is a previous James B. Steele fellow in investigative business journalism who recently earned a master’s degree in investigative journalism from ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. She grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico, and has lived in Arizona for over a decade, where she centers her reporting on the voices and experiences of marginalized communities.