By Evaristo Lara
The images recorded by the body camera worn by a Florida police officer show the arrest of a Latino who, through his mobile phone, had previously dialed 911 requesting help for his four-year-old daughter.
According to records from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, located south of the “Sunshine State,” The subject in question was identified as Axel Sánchez Toledo, an immigrant presumably of Honduran origin who was awaiting a response on an asylum request to reside honestly and permanently in the United States.
Apparently, he shared custody of his daughter with his ex-wife and, upon finding out that she was ill, he asked the authorities to come check on her health status without imagining that he would be detained at risk of being deported.
Initially, a police officer arrived at his home to ask for his driver’s license, to which he agreed.
Minutes later, The officer returned with a companion and both proceeded to arrest him. However, Sánchez Toledo resisted and he even tried to run away at speed, which did not work, as he ended up subdued by electric shocks from a Taser gun.
The Marshall Projectan American nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization dedicated exclusively to investigating and covering the American criminal justice system, as well as immigration law enforcement through reporting, the agent who arrested Sánchez Toledo was part of the sheriff’s office’s Task Force 287(g), an agreement established with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Through this agreement, local police officers are allowed to enforce federal immigration law as part of a collaboration between local Florida law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities.
In fact, the organization notes that more than 1,100 law enforcement agencies across the country have signed agreements with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE).
From that, The Marshall Project believes that the Department of Homeland Security has paid the Sheriff’s Office nearly $1,000,000 in immigration-related reimbursements and other incentives.
Affected by this collaboration agreement, Axel Sánchez Toledo is currently undergoing deportation proceedings.
Keep reading:
• ICE renounces express training for its new agents sent to detain immigrants
• DHS closes office that monitored abuses and rights of detained migrants
• “Massive deportations of immigrants are coming,” anticipates Tom Homan, border czar
• Tom Homan assures that they will not “give up” on Trump’s immigration mission
