Protest calls for release of Phoenix father picked up by ICE on his way to work

The Phoenix branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) held an emergency protest on Sunday following the detainment of local father Joel Gutierrez, calling for his immediate release and a full stop to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids amid the Trump Administration’s mass deportation efforts sweeping across the nation. 

This comes in the wake of an unprecedented uptick in ICE detainment, particularly in metro Phoenix, where just last week ICE, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, began arresting people after their immigration court hearings were dismissed. 

“Mexican people, Latino people have been here for generations, and migration is a natural part of life,” Lexsiri Coronado, an organizer with PSL, said as people began to trickle in at University Park on Sunday afternoon. “I think it’s really important right now that people don’t just take the ICE raids lying down, and they’re showing, the community’s showing, that they won’t. Instead, what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna mobilize and we’re gonna fight back.” 

In solidarity with the mass protests against ICE raids taking place across Los Angeles — which prompted the deployment of the National Guard — PLS organized the Phoenix gathering after Gutierrez was picked up on his way to work during a raid in which he was not the target.

“Whether that means him working three jobs, or that means him waking up at three in the morning to make sure that he gets a paycheck, he was always there every day working. He worked very hard to build the life that we have now, and I’m very grateful,” Denise Gutierrez, Joel’s eldest daughter, said of her father as she spoke with CALÓ News.

Gutierrez, who is the sole provider for their family, was apprehended by ICE on Wednesday, June 4. When ICE picked him up, they not only lost their father but also their stable income, prompting the Gutierrez family to set up a GoFundMe page to help with immigration lawyer and everyday life expenses while they await to hear his fate at the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center. 

“They are targeting families simply because they’re brown. They don’t know anything about them, and it’s honestly terrible. It’s not just my family. There’s many families out there that are working hard and trying to make a life for themselves,” Gutierrez said. “There are a lot of kids that are out there waiting for their mothers, their fathers, their family members to come home, and that just doesn’t happen.” 

Denise Gutierrez’s story is not an uncommon one to hear as of late. 

Having campaigned on the promise of the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, President Donald Trump and his administration have detained over 51,000 migrants, according to ICE numbers being tracked by NBC News, and have deported tens of thousands since taking office in January, with no end in sight thus far for migrants or their frightened families. 

ICE raids have targeted immigrants across the country, plucking them from their places of employment, schools, stores, their homes and even off the street in broad daylight. 

“What’s going on in this country is horrible. Watching these children being dragged out of their homes, away from their families. I’m seeing good people who are trying to get their citizenship, going to court, walking out and being arrested,” said local Chandler resident Elizabeth Redgraves. “You have to get out there and support our community and stop this. That’s why I’m here. Me coming out here is a start, and I hope others will follow… Whether it’s 30 people or 300, every person can make a difference.” 

The PLS protest, which began with a few dozen people at the park, quickly gained traction and garnered local attention as the crowd marched through the streets of downtown, past the Phoenix Municipal Courts and Phoenix Police Department Headquarters, and finally stopping at the Capitol Complex before making their way back to University Park. Hundreds carried multicultural flags from Mexico and Honduras, others wore Palestinian keffiyehs and held up signs in solidarity with Joel Gutierrez and the countless others that have been detained. 

“I’m here to protest what is going on with ICE and the illegal stuff that has gone on with the current administration of Donald Trump,” native Arizonan and Phoenician Angela Duque-Parks said. She explained that she, like many of the protestors, were there as a voice for those still in detention. “They have rights, and those rights are clearly being violated. The voice needs to be for them and let them know that we’re here to support their rights as well.” 

Others, like U.S. veteran Kate Demboski, were there for personal reasons.

“I’ve been doing this for 45 years, and this is pretty much the only way, the only way we can get change in this country,” she said, citing her reason for being there as one rooted in personal history. “Part of the reason I’m out here fighting is because we need healthcare for everyone. We need to shut down ICE. We need to stop deporting people. We need to stop locking people in cages.” 

Following a difficult medical diagnosis that forced Demboski to divorce her husband in order to qualify for access to sufficient healthcare, she finds it unbelievable that the U.S. government is willing to spend an estimated $88 billion on a single year of deportations and detainment, according to the American Immigration Council. 

“That could take care of healthcare for the country. 88 billion. Good Lord, that makes me sick,” Demboski said. “We got to show up. More people need to show up. This needs to be bigger, needs to be a lot bigger and more often.” 

While this protest was an impromptu response to recent events, PSL continues to encourage community engagement, support and resistance by getting more people involved in their fight for a system where the government and economy are controlled by low-income and working class people rather than corporate conglomerates and their billionaire CEOs. 

“We’re here to show people they do have power as long as they get organized. So, beyond the immigration struggle, we’re involved in all kinds of struggles. We believe in interconnecting all this, all these struggles, all these people, to build them into one united front,” Coronado explained, expressing encouragement for others to join the fight. “You don’t have to be scared. There are people here to support you. There are people that are going to fight alongside you and make sure you’re safe at these protests.” 

Despite the escalation of force by authorities in Los Angeles, PSL’s protest remained peaceful. With a growing number of people joining the chants and calls for release, from the marchers on the street to the people shouting from their cars and balconies, the amount of overwhelming support for the Gutierrez family, as well as the families of those still in detainment or that have already been deported, was felt throughout the crowd. 

“I keep seeing a name here and a name there; set so-and-so free, let so-and-so go— We need to let them all go,” Demboski said. “We need to stop doing this. We need to shut it down. That’s what I want to see.” 

“Nobody deserves this,” Gutierrez said. “I hope that (people) see my dad’s case and that they take it as an example, one of many, many, many cases that are happening here in the West; that we’re here to stay and we’re here to fight. Just because you capture one of us, that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to care, that we are going to stand back and let you continue doing this. My dad and many other people that are detained deserve way better… They deserve a single chance.” 

Analisa Valdez (she/her) is a freelance journalist based in Phoenix. Her reporting includes community & culture, social justice, arts, business, and politics.