Three members of a family from Gary, including a US citizen, a minor, have been locked up since last Thursday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke open the door to their home, arresting the whole family.
26-year-old Arnoldo Carrillo Jr. said federal agents showed up at the family’s home last Thursday at about 6 a.m.
He had just woken up.
He said he saw flashing lights and a battering ram was used to break open the front door.
He and his parents, in their fifties, and his siblings, a 24-year-old sister and 14-year-old brother, were taken into custody.
“Dragged out of the house,” he said.
His parents are undocumented.
He said they came here from Mexico 30 years ago.
Carrillo said he was choked and punched in the face by an agent.
He was told he was resisting.
He said that’s not true.
His parents and 14-year-old brother are still being held.
The 14-year-old, Eli, was accused of interfering with federal agents.
He’s in juvenile detention.
His parents are in immigration detention facilities.
“It’s just very sad and it hurts,” he told us. “The family is now apart, I have no idea how my mother is doing, you know, my sister suffers still from the after-effects of everything and, truth be told, we just are hurt and separated.”
His father had an encounter with ICE agents while dropping his brother off at school the previous week.
He got away, but Carrillo believes that led to the agents later showing up the family’s home.
He said his mother warned him and his siblings this could happen.
“For years, my mom had always told us, if ICE does get them just be relaxed, be at peace, because there is a loving family in Mexico that is there for them,” he said.
An on-line fundraiser has raised about 25-thousand dollars for legal expenses.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you have,” he said. “That cannot replace the loss and the love that you have for your family. I’m willing to give it all, what I have, as well, to just have my family together again.”