Woman arrested by federal agents near Pima County courthouse

TUCSON – Local leaders and family members are demanding a woman be released after she was arrested by immigration officials outside of the Pima County Justice Court on Tuesday morning after attending a hearing for a noise complaint charge.

Her best friend, Angel Calderon, who is also being charged with a noise complaint, was with her and witnessed the detention. Her name and that of her family members are being kept anonymous for their safety. After the hearing in Tucson, they were heading to the parking lot across Stone Avenue around 10:15 a.m. when they encountered people in plain clothes.

According to Calderon, a man got out of an SUV behind them and called out to her. As soon as she said yes, “more guys came out of the SUV. And then three cars down, more guys got out of their cars and came towards us and they grabbed her.”

He said they didn’t identify themselves as agents until Calderon tried grabbing her car keys. “I tried asking them what was going on, why were they taking her, and the guy told me, ‘hey, don't interfere because we're ICE,’” Calderon said.

The arrest comes months after the Pima County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to ban ICE enforcement on Pima County-owned and controlled property, including “but not limited to parking lots, vacant lots, or garages, shall be used as a staging area, processing location, or operations base for civil immigration enforcement.” Staging area refers to an area “that is used to assemble, mobilize, and deploy vehicles, equipment, or materials, and related personnel, for the purpose of carrying out civil immigration enforcement operations.”

The resolution still allows ICE to use county property if they have a warrant, but according to Calderon, they did not show a warrant or give a reason for the woman’s detainment at the time of the arrest. 

Tucson hasn’t previously had any major reports of immigration enforcement operations at or near courthouses. The incident has left local activists feeling indignant and questioning whether Pima County is collaborating with ICE. 

Local leaders have made public statements, including Mayor Regina Romero, who said she is working closely with Tucson Police Department Chief Monica Prieto to verify information. Initial communications about the arrest incorrectly cited the incident happening at Tucson City Courts, where the City of Tucson also passed an ordinance earlier this year restricting immigration enforcement on city property. 

Romero added in a statement posted to social media that “This is yet another attack by the Trump Administration to focus their cruel and inhumane policies on working people — NOT violent criminals. They are spreading fear and chaos, NOT keeping us safe.” 

U.S. Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-Tucson) addressed the growing insecurity that residents are feeling with ICE tactics that are “completely unacceptable, cruel, and only serve to erode trust and undermine community safety,” she said in a statement. “When people fear they may be detained for showing up to court, seeking medical care, or taking their children to school, everyone is less safe. My office is in touch with her family and is working to provide assistance.”

“Please don’t stop looking for me” 

The woman has been a Tucson resident for 40 years. She was born in Mexico and crossed into the U.S. legally when she was four years old. She has three kids, ages 18, 19 and 24. 

In an interview with CALÓ News, her daughter said that her mother had an appointment with an immigration attorney on Thursday to initiate filing paperwork related to her immigration status. She had been scared to file earlier because “of how quickly the laws keep changing,” her daughter said.

Her mother is now in ICE custody, according to the ICE Detainee Locator System. 

Her daughter said that after she got the call from Calderon that her mother had been taken by ICE, she looked up her mother’s location through the Find My app on iPhone that allows real-time device tracking. The locator led her to 6431 S. Country Club Rd., ICE’s Tucson Field Office. 

She called Rapid Response Tucson, a 24/7 network that responds to community calls about ICE interactions, to accompany her to the field office where she picked up her mother’s belongings. 

“The little that [immigration officials] told me was that they were going to take my mom to Florence,” her daughter said.

Afterward, she got a call from her mother and spoke with her for an hour. 

“She said that she's just sad, that she's not scared,” her daughter said. “She's sad because she's worried about us… she knows that she needs to remain calm. She just said, ‘please don't stop looking for me.’”

Since her arrest, her children have contacted several lawyers and have been collecting letters from people who knew her and her character. 

“My mom's the backbone of our family. She's always been very intelligent; she helps us out a lot, she just does a lot of great things,” her daughter said. “She contributes to the community; she's not a criminal, she doesn't have speeding tickets, nothing. She doesn't do anything that's bad for this community; she's helped out churches, she always donated, she sends school supplies to kids in Mexico and in the U.S. My mom has gone to the food banks to donate, made sandwiches for the homeless people for hours, just a lot of community service honestly.” 

‘This raises a huge question’

Although the arrest happened on a public sidewalk across the street from the courthouse, the interaction raises questions from activists about any possible collaboration between Pima County and immigration officials. 

“It sounds like at least some entities of the county are collaborators of the local government entity, and are collaborating with ICE in some way,” said Sarah Roberts, the Rapid Response volunteer who took the daughter’s call. “I mean, how did they find out about this woman and where she was going to be at this time on this day? To me, this raises a huge question. How were they able to get that information? Did they tap into county records or [Tucson Police] records?”

Both the City of Tucson and Pima County have policies restricting immigration enforcement operations on property they own and operate. 

ICE did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.

In her statement, Grijalva added that Congress must pass the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which would prohibit immigration enforcement actions within 1,000 feet of sensitive locations, such as schools, courthouses, hospitals and other essential community spaces. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had a Sensitive Locations policy in place since 2011, which was strengthened and clarified in 2021. However, on President Donald Trump’s first day in office for his second term, he rescinded the policy and instead directed immigration officials to use “common sense” for immigration enforcement in previously protected areas, according to The Center for Law and Social Policy. 

Across the country, reports of immigration enforcement happening in schools, hospitals, courthouses and near churches have made headlines. Places where before there was some expectation of safety from immigration enforcement are now targeted areas. 

“They’re just tactics that ICE uses to lure people in. They didn't go after a criminal, somebody who’s a rapist or doing anything bad. They went over a civilian,” her daughter said. “I honestly just want them to release my mom because, like I said, she's not a criminal. She's been here in the U.S. forever. She was showing up to court for a noise complaint … she was being a good citizen by going and paying her dues.”

Susan Barnett is an independent journalist in southern Arizona covering the immigrant and Latine community. She is a recent graduate from the University of Arizona, where she received her Master of Arts in Bilingual Journalism. She previously worked at La Estrella de Tucson and co-founded Tucson Spotlight.