A Mexican dairy worker and leader in the immigrant LGBTQ community faces deportation after immigration agents arrested him on New Year’s Eve inside a Middlebury courthouse.
Cruz Alberto Sanchez-Perez, known as Beto, had just pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving under the influence when he was scooped up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, according to Migrant Justice.
The 26-year-old farmworker, who has been in the country since 2015, has filed for asylum in the U.S., claiming that he faced persecution in his home country based on his sexual orientation. After his arrest on immigration charges, Sanchez-Perez was being held at the Strafford County, N.H., detention center and was due to appear at an immigration court in Boston on Thursday, Migrant Justice said.
ICE has a policy of generally not carrying out enforcement actions at sensitive locations such as schools and places of worship. The agency, however, does not view courthouses as a sensitive location, according to its website.
ICE agents have previously made arrests inside or just outside Vermont courthouses. Angel Garcia of Providence, R.I., was taken into ICE custody in February 2017 as he entered Superior Court in Windsor County to answer to a DUI charge, VTDigger.org reported at the time. In March of the same year, ICE agents arrested Cesar Alex Carrillo outside the Edward J. Costello Courthouse in Burlington as he headed to a hearing for a DUI arrest.
“Since the Trump administration came into office, ICE has been invading state courthouses across the country, spreading fear throughout immigrant communities, disrupting the judiciary and frankly, preventing access to justice,” said Jay Diaz, staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont.
Regardless of his immigration status, Sanchez-Perez has a right to due process, Diaz said: “When ICE moved in and arrested him when he was trying to access to those rights, it’s truly antithetical to constitutional norms and the sanctity that courthouses represent.”
According to an ICE official, the agency works with prosecutors to ensure that someone picked up for deportation proceedings first settles any local criminal charges. “That is a conversation we routinely have with prosecutors,” he said.
The spokesperson said he is not authorized to speak on the record because the agency’s public affairs officers are furloughed and prohibited by law from working due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
The spokesperson said “we don’t make a lot of courthouse arrests,” which he described as “targeted” operations.
“We do not arrest victims and witnesses,” he said. “That is not something we do at courthouses or anywhere else.”
But most people are “not in the weeds” on different enforcement policies, Diaz said. When members of the undocumented community hear that ICE is going to courthouses and arresting people, this prevents even victims of crime and witnesses from coming forward to ask for help, he continued.
“What they know is what they hear,” said Diaz. “And what they hear is that ICE is in the courthouses and looking for people who may be undocumented.”
Marita Canedo from Migrant Justice said the migrant advocacy organization is in regular contact with Sanchez-Perez to offer him support. An online petition calling for public support for his release has garnered more than 1,000 signatures.
“For anybody in immigration detention, that’s a difficult position to be in, particularly for Beto, as an out gay man,” said Will Lambek, a Migrant Justice spokesperson.
“He’s worried about possibilities for abuse and persecution and we are calling on ICE to release him so that he can be in his community and continue to pursue his asylum claim,” Lambek said.
A lawsuit that Migrant Justice filed in November in U.S. District Court in Burlington mentions Sanchez-Perez. The group alleges that the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE have been illegally harassing, arresting and detaining its members as a retaliatory tactic.
ICE agents arrested Sanchez-Perez in August 2016 to interrogate him about a car crash in which he was a passenger. The agents held him overnight, “did not allow him to contact an attorney and made multiple references to his perceived sexual orientation,” the suit alleges.
The Pride Center of Vermont said Sanchez-Perez previously helped to develop programs for LGBTQ migrants in Addison County. In a statement to Seven Days, the group said that his detention “has already deprived Vermont of a valued and constructive community member.”
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This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2019.
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All of the examples in this story of ICE picking up immigrants in court involve DUI cases. I guess the rule of thumb is don’t drink and drive especially if your immigration status is not settled.
I’d be inclined to agree, Mark, except for law enforcement’ s predilection for noticing the smell of marijuana in the absence of evidence of drinking. Given their overwhelming focus on Latinos, I doubt evidence has much to do with these arrests.
He should have realized that it is unlawful to drink and drive. He asked for it .
Maybe the ACLU and illegal immigrants rights groups think its time to reverse decades old draconian DUI laws, since it’s adversely affecting their cause for amnesty. Funny how ideologs are so blinded by righteousness they put certainly people’s lives and rights, usually ethnocentricly, over others.
Good. Let him come back in the legal way like so many have before him.
The message to me is clear: you are in America illegally. You don’t get to stay because you are LGBTQ, a Latino or both. Glad he was picked up. Hope he doesn’t come back again illegally.
Really the person is an ILLEGAL and driving under the influence but lets blame police,DMV and ice bur not this idiot. So tired of liberal thinking. Maybe if he killed one of these save the illegals loonies family members they might rethink trying to protect him.
Good Job ICE,Adios Beto!
Headline should read: Illegal caught while endangering lives of tax paying citizens; gets sent home.
You see folks, they’re called LAWS. So exhausted of stupid, virtue signaling dems.
Since WHEN is it ILLEGAL to be a homosexual in Mexico? WHEN did Mexico start executing men for being gay? Being a homosexual from Mexico is NOT a sufficient claim for asylum in the USA. The FUNNIEST part of this story, the end when they say Vermont has lost a “VALUED CONSTRUCTIVE” member of their community. He IS DRUNKEN ILLEGAL ALIEN! HOW did he even obtain a driver’s licence to drive drunk and put INNOCENT AMERICANS LIVES IN DANGER??? What part of ILLEGAL ALIENS HAVE ZERO RIGHTS TO WORK IN THE USA does the State of VT NOT understand??? This means this ILLEGAL ALIEN has already filed at least THREE Federal Tax returns and most likely put several ILLEGAL ALIEN kids on his return to STEAL thousands in fed $ NOT entitled to. I bet he sent the money home to his family in Mexico like they ALL do…
There u go. Worried about your god … tax dollars and somebody getting something. What about my tax bucks you got. Like 401k deffed tax bucks,writing of state tax , so pay here get tax money back there. So u really not paying your share. Probably got kids. I dont. why my tax bucks being spent to school your kids. These breaks are done so you have less government. Right. So when u retire no reason for my tax money to pay you health insurance. Right. Try to get that Medicare card from those fingers. Since u invested so good. What you doing with the money government let u have while they described my tax bucks to your so called hardworking …. Oh ,it so you can leave it to your children. Fuck them. They get same government hand outs you did. Your supposed to die broke. Your check to undertaker should bounce…..I could go on. So he smoked pot. No alcohol. They just charged him with DUI. Don’t u have to drink to get that charge.
Why u not out roitng. Your president is using black Male to run his goverment.commuist,social whatever,democratic. There’s no government that uses this. If your a vet you really should be burning a flag or something. This what u fight for. Any one that cuts grass in the rain. I’ll given my tax bucks so they can have insurance or send it to Mexico. Any thing except that God … wall. How you like me now. Dont feel bad . I send this shit out to all you tax evader. He should drink and run your … over. Amen.how those apples.
Jane DUI is “Driving Under the Influence” of a drug. Alcohol is a drug, Pot is a drug.
I have zero tolerance for anyone driving under the influence of ANY drug. They should have severe consequences for endangering others lives.
I would be highly suspect that an illegal alien filed any tax returns as well.
As for your rant about protecting our tax dollars, that is problem with arguments like this..Why do we have to pay for people who do not contribute to the system? Maybe you have no problem giving the government all your money, but some of us are saving so we can retire and live in VT.
A complete idiot. These illegal aliens are already criminals. I don’t know about you but I am disabled and work a few hours in a local convenient store and I bag a lot beer in small brown bags to whom I’m sure are illegals.i have passed many a van loaded with them pulled over with emptied beer cans/bottles on top of there vehicles. Ship them all…