Activist Arrested After Attempting to Stop Arrest of Another Immigrant
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Published December 17, 2016
YUMA, AZ - MARCH 17: Handcuffs secure the back door of a US Customs and Border Protection border patrol vehicle loaded with suspected illegal immigrants on the California side of the Colorado River on March 17, 2006 near Yuma, Arizona. As Congress begins a new battle over immigration policy, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border patrol agents in Arizona are struggling to control undocumented immigrants that were pushed into the region by the 1990?s border crack-down in California called Operation Gatekeeper. A recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center using Census Bureau data estimates that the U.S. currently has an illegal immigrant population of 11.5 million to 12 million, about one-third of them arriving within the past 10 years. More than half are from Mexico. Beefed-up border patrols and increased security are reportedly having the unintended result of deterring many from returning to their country of origin. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) (2006 Getty Images)
An immigrant activist in Arizona who tried to obstruct the arrest of another immigrant was himself arrested, sparking an outcry among other activists.
Raul Alcaraz Ochoa, an organizer of day laborers, lay down beneath a U.S. Border Patrol vehicle in an unsuccessful bid to thwart the arrest of another man in Tucson, authorities said Monday.
Ochoa was pepper-sprayed by a Border Patrol agent Sunday after he refused to come out from underneath the vehicle, Tucson police spokesman Fabian Pacheco said.
Alcaraz was protesting the arrest of a driver whose vehicle was pulled over after officers got a call from someone who reported two children being put into a car trunk, Pacheco said.
Police were concerned about the possibility of a child abduction.
Immigrant rights supporters planned a rally outside a Tucson police building to protest the arrests of Alcaraz and the driver.
Driver Rene Huerta Meza, 30, was handcuffed as officers who made the stop investigated further and discovered a woman and five children in the two-door hatchback.
A 7-year-old girl and two 4-year-old boys in the vehicle were Meza's children, while the woman was the mother of two other 4-year-old boys.
Officers learned that none of the children was restrained inside the vehicle and found two children in the vehicle's hatchback area, Pacheco said.
Police said they learned that Meza's driving privileges had been suspended after he presented a Mexican voter registration card as a form of identification. He was cited for civil child restraint violations and for having a suspended driver's license, a criminal offense.
Meza's arrest for prompted an immigration status check. The check is required under a section of Arizona's 2010 immigration law that says authorities must verify the immigration status of all arrested people, Pacheco said. Meza is undocumented, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Pacheco said Alcaraz, who is a legal permanent resident, then started to interfere with officers, telling them that authorities were tearing apart families in arresting undocumented immigrants.
The Border Patrol didn't immediately return a message seeking comment on the arrests.
Alcaraz said he lay down beneath the vehicle and refused to come out because he saw the children in the car crying as their father was put into a police car. He said he thrust himself into the situation because he sees Latinos getting harassed by authorities on a regular basis and he's tired of the injustice.
The Star said that Meza Ochoa was released from custody Monday, but faces charges of interfering with a federal officer.
Based on a story by The Associated Press.
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