Arleth Pacheco describes her dad, Gerardo Pacheco Oliveros, as a hard working construction worker who supports her and her U.S. born siblings. She said her father has no criminal record and was in the process of applying for residency.
Pacheco said she was horrified to learn that her father was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents near Baseline Street in San Bernardino while on his way to work on January 23. She said he was driving with his brother, her uncle, when several vehicles began following them and pulled them over.
“They just took him away,” Pacheco shared, struggling to speak through tears. “He was just on his way to work.”
Pacheco claims her father complied with the agents’ orders and provided them with his California-issued driver’s license. Pacheco said her uncle was released after several minutes, but her father was taken without explanation. It wasn’t until Sunday — about two days after her father was taken — that Pacheco says she was able to know of his whereabouts. At that point, Pacheco said he was being detained at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center’s Desert View Annex.
“This was actually the first time I talked to him on the phone,” said Pacheco. “He basically just gave us a number they gave him, I’m assuming, for an attorney.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment on the arrest of Gerardo Pacheco Oliveros.
Pacheco’s account reflects the pattern of immigration enforcement under the Trump administration impacting many families in the Inland Empire. Deportation and detention data analyzed by UCLA researchers show that monthly detentions of Latino immigrants without criminal convictions increased six-fold compared with the last year of the Biden administration. Data shows many Latino detainees were held for weeks and frequently transferred out of state.
The UCLA analysis shows that those arrested and detained are between 18 and 54-years-old and mostly men. The total number of Latinos detained went from 3,500 to over 38,700.
“While the rhetoric focuses on the ‘worst of the worst,’ non-criminals are increasing the most in terms of arrests, detention, and deportation,” said UCLA urban planning and public policy professor Paul Ong. “That reflects a shift in ICE’s strategy, which is targeting a population that’s supposedly a low priority and one that polling shows most Americans believe should have a pathway to legal status.”
Raul Godinez, an immigration attorney based in Southern California, said recent laws and court rulings have changed how DHS detains immigrants and has limited access to bond hearings in some situations. He points to a case he’s currently handling involving a day laborer from El Salvador that was arrested in the area last fall.
Godinez says his client is undocumented and has no criminal record. However, a DHS arrest report — known as an I-213 form — alleges the man is gang-affiliated and committed a crime in his home country nearly 20 years ago. Godinez said his client wasn’t even in El Salvador when the alleged crime took place.
Godinez also said his client has been detained without a bond hearing, which means an immigration judge has not reviewed whether he poses a danger to the community and is a flight risk. He said the case highlights broader concerns about how unverified allegations in DHS reports can be used to justify prolonged detention.
“We’re paying for every day he’s detained, and no one has determined whether he’s a danger to society or a flight risk,” Godinez said. “It’s time-consuming, and it’s expensive — both for the family and for taxpayers.”
Lizbeth Castillejos-Abeln with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (IC4IJ) said the aggressive enforcement at the center of protests in Minnesota was first felt by Southern California communities last summer. She said her organization is on the “frontlines” of responding to the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the growing economic and psychological effect on families.
“We've seen how Border Patrol and ICE have targeted workers,” Castillejos-Abeln said. “That is concerning just given how many families are being destabilized because they don't have their breadwinner. The breadwinner is being detained and deported, and so many families are in need. Many people come to us for support to pay rent and utilities. This is all being caused by the federal government right now.”
Meanwhile, Arleth Pacheco shared her family has been struggling to get by since her dad’s arrest. She said she’s helped him pay bills so that his bank account doesn’t overdraft.
“It’s been stressful. We were supposed to visit him this week, after getting him some legal support,” she said.
Pacheco said they’re trying to get him out on bond, so he can continue to move toward obtaining legal residency, and support his family. But she said it’s been hard to get answers from DHS on whether he’s still at Adelanto or if he’s been moved to another detention center.
“It's scary. We were just in contact with him…and now, we can’t be in contact? I just don’t understand,” said Pacheco. “We just want him here at the house..because it's hard not knowing if he’s safe.”
