Two separate ICE detentions in the Triangle last week have stoked fears of a broader crackdown, though advocates say they’ve found no evidence that immigration agents are making indiscriminate arrests in the area.
One arrest happened Thursday morning in the parking lot of Trinity Food Mart, a convenience store in downtown Durham. Federal agents arrived in unmarked vehicles and took a woman into custody, according to Siembra NC, an immigrant advocacy organization.
Andreina Malki, a Defense Manager for Siembra, said the agents were with Homeland Security Investigations, an investigative arm of ICE, indicating that the arrest was likely targeted rather than part of a broader sweep.
The arrested woman’s family declined an interview through Siembra. It’s not clear what led to the arrest.
The incident prompted a “soft lockdown” at Central Park School for Children, an elementary school across the street from Trinity Food Mart, according to a parent. Doors were locked, and students stayed inside all day, including for recess. At dismissal, staff helped walk vulnerable children home and to the bus, the parent said.
The other ICE detention last week began with a car accident in Pittsboro on November 2. State Highway Patrol arrested Wagner Juan Saldaña Rojas at the scene on outstanding warrants, and two days later he was transferred from the Chatham County Detention Center to ICE custody.
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Saldaña Rojas was driving with his wife and their daughter at the time of the crash, according to friends of the family. No one was seriously injured.
Saldaña Rojas was arrested at the scene because there were warrants out for his arrest in Wake County, according to a traffic citation. The warrants accuse Saldaña Rojas of picking up tires that someone had allegedly paid for with fraudulent credit cards. It’s not clear that Saldaña Rojas ever knew the warrants existed; court records indicate he had not been served with them before the crash.
Under state law, local jails must determine the citizenship status of people charged with certain crimes and hold them for up to 48 hours when ICE issues a detainer.
By Friday, Saldaña Rojas was being held at Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, more than 500 miles from home, according to ICE’s online detainee locator.
Saldaña Rojas’s wife, Jenny, is a teacher at a home daycare in Durham. The daycare’s director told the families of enrolled children about Saldaña Rojas’s detention soon after the arrest and several parents stepped in to help, including Glenn Fullington and Ashley Phillips.
“I can only imagine myself in a situation like that, where your world is just turned upside down,” Phillips said.
Fullington and Phillips told the INDY that Saldaña Rojas has work authorization from DHS, and has been attending immigration court hearings. They said they don’t know his exact immigration status.
Fullington accompanied Jenny to the Chatham County Detention Center on Wednesday morning while Saldaña Rojas, who is from Peru, was being held there.
“It’s quite disorienting,” Fullington said. “There’s no one to greet you. It’s an empty lobby with a bunch of signage on the walls and a telephone on the wall.”
Fullington said Jenny had paid Saldaña Rojas’s bond and expected him to be released, but that the family later learned he had been transferred to ICE custody instead.
Jenny did not respond by Monday afternoon to questions the INDY emailed her over the weekend. ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
Malki said that beyond these two detentions, Siembra has not confirmed any other ICE arrests in the Triangle last week and has found no evidence of a broader enforcement operation in the area. Siembra tries to quickly verify reports of ICE activity, she said, because unconfirmed rumors can keep people from going to work or taking their kids to school.
“It makes people afraid when two folks that they know are taken the same week,” Malki said.
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