‘They were just arresting people’: Family seeks release of longtime Des Plaines resident detained by feds

A Des Plaines man detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents earlier this month despite being an American citizen is fighting for his father’s release.

Daniel Acuna, 23, said he and Jose A. Acuna-Sanchez, a 45-year-old Des Plaines resident, were arrested by masked, uniformed agents Nov. 5 while doing professional landscaping work on Walnut Street. Another worker was arrested, too.

Acuna acknowledged his dad entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico as a child and then again as an adult. However, the agents didn’t produce warrants for any of the detainees, he said.

“They were just arresting people,” Acuna said.

A federal consent decree prohibits agents from making warrantless immigration arrests without probable cause. This past Wednesday, a federal judge in Chicago ordered the release of hundreds of immigrants whose arrests are being legally challenged under that decree.

The Trump administration has said it will appeal the ruling.

While Acuna was released, his father was taken to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview and then transferred to an immigration detention center in Michigan, an attorney for the family said.

Asked about the arrests, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents assigned to Operation Midway Blitz frequently speak with people they encounter and ask “fact-finding questions.” Acuna-Sanchez started to flee after agents on patrol stopped to speak with him, the spokesperson said in an email, so he was arrested.

A background check determined Acuna-Sanchez is in the U.S. illegally, the spokesperson said.

A Maine West High School alum, Daniel Acuna has lived his whole life in Des Plaines. His two sisters also are U.S. citizens.

Acuna used his cellphone to film some of the activity, including his father’s arrest, and he shared the short videos with the Daily Herald. The recordings pick up Acuna yelling obscenities and racial slurs at the deputies and opening a door to the Border Patrol vehicle in which his father was sitting before it sped away from him.

Securing all individuals during an active arrest is standard procedure to protect officers and anyone not being arrested, the Homeland Security spokesperson said.

Acuna’s behavior toward the agents and at the vehicle also factored in his arrest, the spokesperson said.

Acuna told agents he was a U.S. citizen. He said he was driven around Des Plaines for about an hour before being released.

“I think it was unfair that they arrested us,” Acuna said. “I was so mad about it, I was crying and throwing up.”

Acuna’s younger sister, Ximena, said she was shocked by her dad’s arrest.

“You’re seeing it all over the news, but I never really thought it would’ve been my parent,” she said.

Jose Acuna-Sanchez calls his family every day or so, Ximena said. He’s being held in a cell with two or three other people, she said.

Ximena Acuna said her dad sounded “very stressed out and sad” when they last spoke.

“He just started crying,” she said.

The family wants Acuna-Sanchez transferred back to Illinois and then released. The attorney they’ve hired to contest his detention, Khiabett Osuna, hasn’t yet met with Acuna-Sanchez but has requested to do so.

A hearing regarding Acuna-Sanchez’s detention hasn’t yet been scheduled, Osuna said. Acuna-Sanchez’s immigration hearing is set for Jan. 6 in Detroit.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, whose district includes the Acunas’ neighborhood in Des Plaines, criticized the Department of Homeland Security for targeting people “based on skin color, profession, or simply location” and making arrests without warrants.

“DHS keeps eroding the constitutional rights of my constituents,” Ramirez said through a spokesperson. “That is why I am calling on every family to know their rights and reach out to my office if they have been unlawfully detained.”

Ramirez’s office has spoken with Acuna-Sanchez’s family and is helping them navigate the process.