(STORY AND PHOTO BY NEW YORK POST) – A man wanted for murder in Mexico was detained by ICE in California as he rushed his pregnant wife to the hospital, according to reports.
Maria del Carmen Venegas told CBS Los Angeles that she had to drive herself to the hospital for her planned Cesarean section after immigration agents grabbed her husband and led him away in handcuffs.
“I feel very bad right now,” she told the outlet Friday, as she held her newborn boy in the hospital.
Her husband, Joel Arrona-Lara, 36, had stopped for gas on the way to the hospital when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers jumped out of two SUVs and approached them.
The mom of five said she handed over her ID but her husband didn’t have his ID on him. The couple told the agents they lived nearby and could go get it for them. Agents searched the car for weapons, took Arrona-Lara into custody and left the pregnant woman alone at the gas station.
Security footage of the incident show her visibly upset.
“I never thought that they would take him like that, handcuff him, and that they would leave me stranded at the gas station,” she told USA Today, adding that the couple have lived in the US for 10 years.
Ultimately, she drove herself 2 miles to the hospital to give birth.
But the family’s lawyer, Emilio Amaya of the Community Services Center of San Bernardino, says he has been unable to find any legal proceedings against his client in Mexico.
Arrona-Lara remains in detention at the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange County, Amaya said.
