ICE agents surround immigrant man, daughter in truck in Cary
A man and his daughter locked themselves in their truck for over an hour Wednesday morning while immigration agents surrounded them.
Mariano Rosario-Rios refused to roll down his window after being pulled over by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the parking lot of Cary Towne Center. He and his daughter had just left a nearby McDonald’s for breakfast.
After activists and members of the media arrived, the ICE agents left without detaining the man, but did give him a notice to appear in immigration court.
Such actions during the coronavirus pandemic make immigrant communities fear and mistrust all levels of government, said Andrew Willis Garces, the director of Siembra NC, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group.
“It really shows that ICE is committed to undermining public safety and public health,” he said in an interview with The News & Observer. “Even in a pandemic where the governor is ordering us to stay home to safeguard the most vulnerable in our communities, ICE is out here not only creating more contact but creating chaos. Creating fear.”
This is the first local ICE operation since the first week of March, when the COVID-19 virus began being reported in North Carolina, he said.
Public records show Rosario has been charged with crimes three times since 2016, including assault on a female. Online court records show no convictions on those charges.
ICE operations ongoing
ICE was in Cary for ongoing immigration enforcement, but the organization wouldn’t comment specifically about what happened Wednesday morning, said ICE spokesperson Lindsay Williams.
“Operations and enforcement is ongoing,” he said. “Similar to any other police department or police agency around the country. They are still arresting folks and doing what they have to do to keep the community safe. So goes it with ICE.”
On Tuesday, The Los Angeles Times reported ICE began making arrests the day after the California governor ordered people to increase social distancing because of the coronavirus.
“We’re out here trying to protect the public by getting these criminal aliens off the street and out of our communities,” said David Marin, the director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for ICE in Los Angeles in an interview with the LA Times. “Asking us to stop doing that basically gives those criminals another opportunity to maybe commit more crimes, to create more victims.”
Siembra helped Rosario and his daughter understand the paperwork ICE gave him, as well as his rights, Rosario said. The nonprofit also notified activists trained as “ICE Watch Verifiers” of Rosario’s location so they could document what ICE was doing.
Through an interpreter, Rosario said the men banged on their truck windows and threatened to arrest him and his daughter.
A small handful of activists showed up to film the law enforcement officers, including Karen Ziegler.
“I am really worried about undocumented people’s ability to access health care,” she said. “I think people who are in the detention centers need to be released because they are in so much more danger of dying from this illness because they are in close quarters.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 3:06 PM.
