Genaro Carreto, who is undocumented, was arrested in front of his two young children, reports NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer, who spoke with his family.
Immigration agents with their faces covered detained an undocumented man in front of his young children as he took them to school Wednesday morning in San Diego’s City Heights neighborhood.
A relative captured the aftermath of the arrest on video, with the family raising questions about why it happened in that manner to a man they said has no criminal history.
Genaro Carreto was taken into custody at around 7:45 a.m. on Dwight Street, according to his family. They say Carreto came to the U.S. from Guatemala about two years ago, fleeing violence after a relative was killed. He brought his three children to the U.S. the following year: 5-year-old Eugenia, 11-year-old Bilver and 14-year-old Cristel. The family and Carreto's attorney Jordan Schweller said all three have pending asylum cases.
In Spanish, Bilver said he and Eugenia were in the car on the way to school when they heard a siren and were pulled over. Carreto and his family said the agents showed him a sheet of paper and told him to get out of the vehicle, threatening to break the windows before opening the door themselves through the window.
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Bilver said the agents pulled their father out of the car with force and handcuffed him, injuring his hands while Bilver and Eugenia were crying.
Carreto’s sister's niece Evelin Leyva said she’s in the U.S. legally and rushed to the scene, recording video showing the children with tears in their eyes, surrounded by agents.
“I see Eugenia shaking and Genaro, he looked at me and he was screaming. I can tell his eyes like screaming, ‘Help me or do something,’” Leyva said. “And I just hug them, and I said, ‘I'm sorry. I'm sorry guys.’”
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“It's two innocents inside the car, and they don't know where dad is,” she continued. “They don't know if they're police or ICE or who was it because they covered their faces.”
The family said the covered faces brought back memories for the children of robbers in Guatemala.
NBC 7 found no criminal history in San Diego County for Carreto, who’s being held at the Otay Mesa Detention Center and was scheduled to appear before an immigration judge on March 24.
When asked about the case, ICE said in a statement that the agency “conducts routine, daily enforcement alongside our federal, state and local law enforcement partners throughout the San Diego community to bolster public safety, national security, and border security."
ICE did not respond to multiple specific inquiries, including questions on the agents’ face coverings and why the arrest happened in front of the children.
“One of the ICE agents told me everything that's going to be alright, and It was the stupidest thing I heard,” Leyva said. “Which kid's going to be alright without dad? Taking the dad and of course they're not going to be all right. They need dad.”
Leyva said Carreto is the breadwinner of the family. In Spanish, his daughter Cristel said he gets up early to work, to bring food home and to make sure the family is OK. Bilver said he’s a loving man who always hugs them when he gets home from work.
The children all said they’re afraid.
“The little one, she can’t sleep,” Leyva said. “She panics when she goes to the car. She looks around and is scared.”
Leyva said the family didn’t feel fear before this – they had heard of the heightened immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump but thought they were safe.
“They say that the immigration is going to be, or ICE catching people, but only the people who’s in the record, with bad record, with criminal record,” Leyva said. “But it's not true. It's not true. Innocent families, too.”
The arrest happened the same day senior administration officials said detention centers across the U.S. had reached their capacity of about 47,600 people, with 32,809 people taken into custody by ICE since Trump’s inauguration.
Department of Homeland Security data showed, of those individuals, 26% had no criminal charges or convictions, only immigration-related violations.
“If you're born here, if you're American or your parents are legal, you don't have any idea,” Leyva said.
Schweller said he plans to file an application for Carreto to withhold removal, as well as a motion for a hearing to determine if he's eligible to be released from detention on bond as his immigration case proceeds.
"In my client's case, he has no criminal history in Guatemala or the United States, so he's definitely not a danger, and he's got some family here in the United States that he supports, so I'm going to argue that he's not a flight risk as well," Schweller said, adding the manner in which he was arrested could be relevant in his removal proceedings, if his rights were violated.
