Mesa police arrest of immigration rights activist raises questions over ICE cooperation

The arrest and swift release of a Valley immigrant rights activist that took place early this week is raising concerns over the right to document immigration enforcement and the agreements local police departments enter into with federal agencies to carry out those operations.

Community leaders and immigrant rights advocates gathered outside the Mesa Police Department’s Northeast Public Safety Facility on Tuesday, Nov. 25, just hours after learning that Martín Hernández, organizing director for United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 99, had been arrested that morning. Later that day, Hernández was released, but the legal basis for his arrest remains contested.

According to the Mesa Police Department, Hernández was arrested for trespassing. Community members and activists, however, say he was detained for doing something he has done for years: documenting immigration enforcement activity in his community.

Hernández is a longtime organizer and advocate whose work dates back to the SB 1070 era, when he documented what he and others viewed as the abuse of power by law enforcement agencies. 

His network moved quickly once news of his arrest spread on Tuesday. Leaders like Arizona state legislators Sen. Analise Ortiz and Rep. Lorena Austin began calling supporters, posting updates on social media and gathering outside of the Northeast Police Division building at Power and Brown roads to demand his release.

Among those mobilizing was Raquel Terán, community organizer and former Arizona state senator, who told CALÓ News that Hernández learned about immigration enforcement activity in the area from Puente Human Rights Movement’s Migra Watch.

“When Martín was alerted of a raid, he went to the place where the reported immigration enforcement was taking place and that’s when he was detained by Mesa police,” Terán said. 

In a written statement to CALÓ News, Mesa police said officers responded to the 1100 block of North Country Club Drive after receiving “a call for service” from a “concerned citizen” reporting a man who “ran from law enforcement and was hiding inside of a business.” 

According to the statement, officers were then “contacted by 61-year-old Martin Hernandez, who was asked multiple times to leave the private property. Hernandez refused to comply and was subsequently detained for trespassing… Martin was then issued a citation for trespassing and released.”

Terán pointed to Mesa Police Department’s 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — the only city police agency in Arizona to have such a partnership — as to why Hernández’s detention after recording immigration enforcement activity was especially alarming. 

The agreement allows ICE to delegate certain immigration enforcement responsibilities to participating local and state officers, who operate under the agency’s direction and oversight.

“Being able to document what police agency activities are happening in our community… is a right we have; it’s a freedom of speech right,” Terán emphasized.

Terán described the hours after the arrest as filled with uncertainty and frustration. However, she believes the community's rapid response helped prevent a longer detention. 

“I think that Martín would have stayed in jail for at least one night if we hadn’t mobilized and sounded the alarm,” she said.

For Hernández, the experience seemed to reinforce his commitment to documenting enforcement activity and encouraging others to do the same.

“We should not, as community members, as leaders in our community, we should not let officers scare us,” he said in a video posted by Terán on Instagram after his release. “We need to continue our journey and our duty to defend our community and protect them from injustices from ICE and all these separations of families … ¡Sí se puede!”

He also criticized the cooperation he said he’s been seeing between local police and ICE. 

“All these departments, like Mesa [Police Department], cooperating with [ICE]; that’s a shame that they’re doing high fives while people are suffering,” Hernández said in a video posted by Ortiz.

UFCW Local 99 issued a statement following his release, expressing concern and noting that Hernández was “peacefully documenting immigration enforcement activity.” 

Terán said community members plan to continue organizing and showing up for each other. She pointed to Proyecto Progreso, a Spanish-language initiative she directs that aims to educate immigrants in Arizona about their constitutional rights, available at tusderechos.us.

“We are not going to let ICE continue to intimidate our communities and we will continue being present and using our constitutional rights to document and record the abuse of power and the violence that we have seen from this agency,” Terán said.

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.