A man wrongfully detained by ICE discusses his arrest and treatment in custody

Geoff Bennett:

While President Trump's targeted immigration sweeps in cities like New Orleans and Minneapolis have drawn national attention, the reach of his administration's policies extends far beyond those headlines.

Lisa Desjardins spoke with one man caught up in what authorities call the Portland sweep now entering its eighth week.

Lisa Desjardins:

Fifty-five-year-old construction worker Victor Cruz was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on his way home from work in Hillsboro, Oregon. Eyewitness video posted on social media shows ICE agents in civilian clothes pulling him over and arresting him.

The grandfather of two entered the country illegally 26 years ago. He has a construction business and a work permit. Victor was detained in Tacoma, Washington, for three weeks.

Victor joins us now with his lawyer, Julia Braker.

Thank you to you both.

You were on your way back from work when you were detained. Tell us what happened.

Victor Cruz, Detained By ICE:

As I saw them stop behind me, I knew that it was ICE.

They asked for my name. As soon as I get off from my car, I told them that I have a permit to work legally here. And one of the officers wanted me to show the I.D. He told me: "This means nothing to us. For us, you are still an illegal."

And they just cuffed me and chained me on — around my waist, my ankles, and they put me in their vehicle.

Lisa Desjardins:

When you got in the vehicle, it seemed they were looking for someone else. What did you hear?

Victor Cruz:

One of the officers have a picture of the man that they were looking for. And they were talking just to each other, asking if it was me, if it was the person that they were looking for.

I was scared, terrified, and I was just thinking about my family. I didn't know at that time if they knew that I was arrested or not. So it was a terrifying moment.

As soon as they arrest me and we got into a facility, immigration facility in Portland, Oregon, they run my fingerprints. And still they didn't found anything. And the other officer just told me: "Well, since you are here, we must take you to Tacoma."

Lisa Desjardins:

You were detained for three weeks. There are a lot of questions about how the Trump administration's handling detention. What was your experience?

Victor Cruz:

They put us in this cell with A.C. It was really cold. And the room was — it's made out of concrete. The benches are concrete.

In the cell that I put in, in the beginning, it was 80 of us. And the food also is not good. It was a lot of hours between one meal to another.

Lisa Desjardins:

Julia, you and another attorney were able to get him out of detention. What is his status right now?

Julia Braker, Attorney For Victor Cruz:

Mr. Cruz has what's called deferred action status, which means that the Department of Homeland Security has looked at his application and decided that they're going to defer any removal or deportation on his case while his case is pending.

Lisa Desjardins:

But he was still detained despite having that status.

Julia Braker:

That's correct.

Lisa Desjardins:

Is that lawful, in your opinion?

Julia Braker:

No, because when the Department of Homeland Security makes such a determination, it goes in complete contradiction for it to then detain that person and put them into deportation proceedings.

Lisa Desjardins:

We did reach out to the Department of Homeland Security.

And here's what a spokesman told us about this case in particular. She said: "No one was arrested by mistake. ICE will continue to arrest illegal aliens who have no right to be in this country. Work authorization does not confer any legal status in this country."

How do you respond to that statement from Homeland Security?

Julia Braker:

I think this statement by Homeland Security is an attempt to obfuscate the fact that Mr. Cruz's rights were violated in the process of this arrest.

It simply doesn't make sense that the Department of Homeland Security would both grant him a status that explicitly says that he won't be removed and at the same time put him into removal proceedings.

Lisa Desjardins:

Victor, I want to ask you. There is a fierce debate, of course, about immigration in this country right now, as you well know.

Some people argue that you broke the rules when you entered this country, you did it illegally, and that you should be forced to leave. What do you say to those people?

Victor Cruz:

I don't know if people can say that it was a crime that I crossed the border without any proper documents.

But I can tell to them that they are getting the wrong people. In the cell that I was in, like I said, it was about 80 people; 90 percent of those people that were in there had no records at all.

Lisa Desjardins:

You now have ankle monitoring. Your work permit, you were not given that back. What has this time meant for you and your family?

Victor Cruz:

I'm not able to go to work. And it is awful, because I'm the main provider for my family.

So, it is kind of a scare knowing that the bills and that the rent are not going to wait for us. My wife and I are very scared to even go outside to the store because there is still a lot of ICE activity around these neighborhoods.

We also discuss about what we're going to do in the case that I get detained again. It is sad that all this has been happening, but I told my wife and kids that, if anything happens to me again, I just don't want to live the same nightmare again. I will just sign my deportation right away, because I don't want to go through this again.

Sorry. It was so hard, not only on me, on myself, but on my family. They don't think that they can go through the same situation again.

Lisa Desjardins:

That's a discussion no family wants to have.

Victor Cruz:

Thank you. Yes. I'm so proud of them.

Lisa Desjardins:

Julia Braker and Victor Cruz, thank you so much for talking with us.

Julia Braker:

Thank you.

Victor Cruz:

Thank you for having me.