HARSH

ICE Detains Man Driving Pregnant Wife to Hospital to Give Birth

“My husband needs to be here. He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away.”

Immigration agents reportedly arrested a man while he was driving his pregnant wife to a California hospital to deliver a baby. Maria del Carmen Venegas, the man’s wife, told CBS Los Angeles that the couple was heading to a hospital for a planned C-section when they were confronted by ICE agents at a gas station in San Bernardino. Her husband, Joel Arrona, was subsequently taken into custody and she drove herself to the hospital, where she later gave birth. “My husband needs to be here. He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away,” Venegas told CBS. ICE released a statement confirming the detention on Friday, but gave no details on the circumstances. “Mr. Arrona-Lara, a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States, was taken into custody Wednesday by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers in San Bernardino, Calif.,” the statement said, adding that “removal proceedings” are pending. The statement also warned that the agency “will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.” No further details were available on Arrona’s case.