U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Isela Hernandez Lugo in the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot at 1635 E. Cottonwood St. on the morning of Jan. 14.
“What we got here is ICE guys, they just snatched this lady,” a man recording cellphone video of the incident said that is circulating online. “ICE right here … watch out. They’re in Cottonwood, Arizona, pulling people off the street.”
“On Jan. 14, following a vehicle stop in Cottonwood, ICE arrested Isela Hernandez Lugo, an illegal alien from Mexico, living in the United States,” ICE spokesman Fernando Burgos-Ortiz wrote. “Hernandez Lugo entered the United States without inspection at an unknown location on an unknown date. She remains in ICE custody pending disposition of her removal proceedings.”
The vehicle shown in the video is a gray Nissan Titan truck with blacked-out windows and no law enforcement light bar on top, but with red and blue lights mounted on the side and rear bumper. The vehicle’s license plate was CWW1482.
“The arrest was carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of their operation,” Cottonwood Police Department Sgt. Chad Sinn wrote. “Cottonwood police officers were not involved, and ICE has confirmed this was a targeted arrest, not a random enforcement action.
“The Cottonwood Police Department was not notified prior to or following this operation, and we were not requested to assist,” Sinn wrote. “It did not directly involve our agency.”
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office was not involved in this action,” Lennea Montandon, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, wrote Jan. 15.
