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Immigration Hotspot in AZ 12/04 10:23
Best known as home to Walmart headquarters, the county and the wider region
have emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration's
immigration crackdown.
ROGERS, Ark. (AP) -- She was already separated from her husband, the family
breadwinner and father of her two youngest children, and had lost the home they
shared in Arkansas.
Then Cristina Osornio was ensnared by the nation's rapidly expanding
immigration enforcement crackdown just months after her husband was deported to
Mexico. Following a traffic stop in Benton County, in the state's northwest
corner, she was jailed for several days on an Immigration and Customs
Enforcement hold, records show, even though she is a legal permanent U.S.
resident and the mother of six children.
Best known as home to Walmart headquarters, the county and the wider region
have emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration's
crackdown, according to an Associated Press review of ICE arrest data, jail
records, police reports and interviews with residents, immigration lawyers and
watchdogs.
The county offers a window into what the future may hold in places where
local and state law enforcement authorities cooperate broadly with ICE, as the
Department of Homeland Security offers financial incentives in exchange for
help making arrests.
The partnership in Arkansas has led to the detention and deportation of some
violent criminals but also repeatedly turned misdemeanor arrests into the first
steps toward deportations, records show. The arrests have split apart families,
sparked protests and spread fear through the immigrant community, including
people born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Marshall
Islands.
"Nobody is safe at this point because they are targeting you because of your
skin color," said Osornio, 35, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S.
since she was 3 months old.
Her odyssey began in September, when an officer in the city of Rogers cited
her for driving without insurance and with a suspended license, body cam video
shows. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a
misdemeanor case and taken to the Benton County Jail, where an ICE hold was
placed on her.
After four days behind bars, she said she was released without explanation.
She called it a "very scary" experience that exacerbated her health conditions.
Benton County offers the kind of help ICE wants nationwide
More than 450 people were arrested by ICE at the Benton County Jail from
Jan. 1 through Oct. 15, according to ICE arrest data from the University of
California Berkeley Deportation Data Project analyzed by AP. That's more than
1.5 arrests per day in the county of roughly 300,000 people.
Most of the arrests were made through the county's so-called 287(g)
agreement, named for a section of immigration law, that allows deputies to
question people who are booked into the jail about their immigration status. In
fact, the county's program accounted for more than 4% of roughly 7,000 arrests
nationwide that were attributed to similar programs during the first 9 1/2
months of this year, according to the data.
Under the program, deputies alert ICE to inmates suspected of being in the
country illegally, who are usually held without bond and eventually transferred
into ICE custody. After a couple of days, they are often moved to the
neighboring Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, which has long
held detainees for ICE, before they are taken to detention centers in Louisiana
and potentially deported.
ICE now has more than 1,180 cooperation agreements with state and local law
enforcement agencies, up from 135 at the start of the new administration, and
it has offered federal payments to cover the costs of training, equipment and
salaries in some circumstances. Arrests under the programs have surged in
recent months as more agencies get started, ICE data shows.
The growth has been particularly pronounced in Republican-led states such as
Florida, where new laws encourage or require such cooperation. Earlier this
year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law requiring all county
sheriffs to cooperate with ICE through either a 287(g) program at the jail or a
program in which they serve ICE warrants to expedite detentions and removals.
ICE arrests have surged in Benton County this year
Benton County's partnership with ICE has been controversial off and on since
its inception nearly 20 years ago.
ICE data shows arrests have shot up this year in the county, a Trump
stronghold in a heavily Republican state that has a large foreign-born
population compared with other parts of Arkansas.
About half of those arrested by ICE through the program have been convicted
of crimes, while the other half have charges pending, according to the data.
But the severity of the charges ranges widely.
Jail records show those on recent ICE holds include people charged with
forgery, sexual assault, drug trafficking, theft and public intoxication.
Offenses related to domestic violence and unsafe driving are among the most
common.
Local observers say they have tracked an uptick in people facing ICE
detention after traffic stops involving violations such as driving without a
license.
"It just feels more aggressive. We're seeing people detained more frequently
on extremely minor charges," said Nathan Bogart, an immigration attorney.
"They've kind of just been let off the leash now."
County officials were unwilling to talk about their partnership with ICE.
County Judge Barry Moehring, the county's chief executive who oversees public
safety, referred questions to the sheriff's office.
Sheriff Shawn Holloway, who has championed the program since his election in
2015, did not respond to several interview requests. The sheriff's office
spokesperson referred questions to ICE.
A routine traffic stop turns into an ICE hold
Body cam video shows that police officer Myles Tucker pulled Osornio over on
Sept. 15 in a quiet neighborhood of Rogers as she drove to a bank to get change
for her job at the retail chain Five Below.
Tucker said he stopped Osornio because a check of her license plate number
indicated that her auto insurance was unconfirmed, and he thought she made a
suspicious turn after seeing police.
In addition to issuing tickets for lacking insurance and driving with a
suspended license, the officer learned she had a warrant for failing to appear
for a misdemeanor domestic violence case. That case stemmed from a 2023
incident in which she argued and fought with her husband.
Osornio disputed that she missed a court hearing. She told the officer that
her husband had been deported and that she needed to arrange child care for her
children.
During the drive to the jail, Tucker played upbeat Christian-themed music in
his patrol vehicle.
He turned down the music to ask Osornio where she was born, saying the
information would be required at the jail. "I ask the question because I have
to put it on the form, not because I'm trying to get you in trouble," he said.
Osornio said she was baffled about why she was placed on an ICE hold. She
offered to show her residency and Social Security cards, but jail staff told
her she would have to meet with an immigration agent in a few days. She said
that never happened and instead she was told the hold was "lifted."
Neither a jail spokesperson nor ICE responded to questions about the matter.
Cpl. Don Lisi, spokesperson for the Rogers Police Department, said his
agency has "nothing to do with" the county's ICE partnership.
But jail records show dozens of the department's recent arrests have turned
into ICE detentions once suspects are booked. Advocates for immigrants allege
the department and others nearby engage in racial profiling in traffic stops.
Afraid of racial profiling, local residents take precautions
In interviews, nonwhite residents said they were afraid to drive in
northwest Arkansas regardless of whether they had legal status. Some said they
leave home only to go to work, have groceries and food delivered rather than
eating out, and avoid other activities.
"This is a kind of jail, one would say," said Ernesto, 73, a school
custodian born in Venezuela, from his apartment filled with Christmas
decorations. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to
avoid retaliation.
One of Ernesto's adult daughters was recently stripped of her asylum status,
and his temporary legal status also recently expired. He recently witnessed
authorities "taking away people" from a traffic stop.
"Don't just pull over people because they're Latino or a foreigner," he
said. "I hope that all this is over soon, that the state of Arkansas sees who
are the immigrants that are doing good here."
Rogers-based attorney Lilia Pacheco said she started practicing law in the
area during the first Trump administration, and "it's day and night between the
first administration as far as enforcement." She said Benton County authorities
have taken their cooperation with ICE to new heights, stepping up traffic
stops, assisting with arrests and welcoming undercover agents.
"We're seeing that shift here, and I think that's given a rise to the
arrests and operations in the area," she said. "It looks like their
relationship is a lot closer than what we anticipated that it would be."
Pacheco said her husband was recently pulled over in Rogers while taking
their daughter to school when he was driving the speed limit and could not
understand why. The officer asked for his driver's license, and he was let go
without a ticket, she said.
The family has since installed a dashboard camera in their car so that they
can record any future interactions with police after the Supreme Court decision
that allowed ICE to racially profile, she said.
Pacheco said many who live in the area are from the state of Guanajuato in
Mexico, and fear deportation because of a rise in violence linked to drug
cartels. Those from El Salvador fear prolonged detention in their country,
which has swept up innocent people in its crackdown on gangs, she said.
After husband's deportation, family has struggled
Osornio said she has been with her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, for eight
years. They got together a couple of years after he illegally crossed the
border from Mexico when he was in his late teens.
They have two children together, a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl. She
said her husband worked in construction, and his salary paid the rent and bills
in the home they shared in Bentonville.
Court records show Sanchez-Mendoza was arrested on misdemeanor charges in
September 2024 after he was accused of striking one of his teenage stepsons.
Sanchez-Mendoza told police he was restraining the stepson in self-defense
and believed the teen called police to scare him since he was not in the
country legally. A Bentonville officer wrote in a report that the sheriff's
office should check "the legality of Edwin's nationality status."
Sanchez-Mendoza was placed on a hold for ICE at the Benton County Jail. The
charges were dropped after ICE transferred him elsewhere in January 2025.
Ultimately, Osornio said her husband ended up at an ICE detention facility
in Louisiana, where he found the conditions unbearable. He agreed to be
deported and was flown last spring to Mexico, where he has since moved back to
his rural hometown and helps on the family farm.
His absence has been devastating financially and emotionally, Osornio said.
When they drive past construction sites, their young daughter says, "Look, Mom,
Daddy's working there," she said.
The family could no longer afford their house. Osornio got the retail job
but has struggled to pay for the apartment where they moved and their bills.
She's getting help from a local advocacy organization and asking for help on
GoFundMe.
She suffers from high blood pressure and said she suffered a stroke days
after her release from jail.
Osornio said Sanchez-Mendoza wants her to move to Mexico, and she and the
kids visited him in May. But she's agonizing over the decision, saying she
fears it would put her children in danger of cartel violence and that she knows
the U.S. as home.
She's anxiously waiting for her new permanent residency card to arrive after
receiving a temporary extension earlier this year.
"Obviously over there it's the cartels. But here now the scare is with
immigration. Now we don't know even if we are safe here anymore," she said.
"Ever since that happened to me, I don't go anywhere. I don't go out of my
house."
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