Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested a Michigan father last week while he was dropping his autistic son at school.
Jose Guadalupe Jaimes, 55, was arrested outside Arthur Middle School in Trenton, Michigan on Wednesday after he took his son, who has Asperger’s, to school.
His family told the Detroit Free Press that three vehicles with flashing lights surrounded Jaimes’ work van and agents, some with guns drawn, detained him outside the school.
Jaimes is a father of five who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and owns a painting business. He has no known criminal record or cases pending in Wayne County courts, according to the Free Press.
A spokesperson for ICE told the outlet that Jaimes had been “ordered removed by an immigration judge in 2014” and described him as an “illegal alien from Mexico.”
However, family members said Jaimes had a work permit and documentation to live in the U.S.
“We just want him back home,” one of his sons, Hector Jaimes, a junior at college in Tennessee told the Free Press. “We’re worried about him.”
Jaimes is currently detained in St. Clair County Jail. He will now be processed in federal immigration court.
His arrest comes after the Trump administration revoked longstanding protections barring immigration raids on schools, hospitals, churches and other protected areas in January.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” Benjamine Huffman, acting Homeland Security Secretary, said in a statement at the time. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
