(This article was written by Christine Zhu of NC Newsline, part of The States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization & is republished by US Border News with permission)
Immigration advocates are demanding answers after a U.S. citizen said he was arrested at gunpoint by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on his way to work in Charlotte earlier this week.
Atilio Portillo, a resident of East Charlotte who owns a small construction business, told reporters during a press conference Friday that ICE agents stopped him as he was on his way to work early Wednesday morning with his brother and nephew.
The agents blocked his work truck with unmarked vehicles, broke its windows, and pointed guns at the passengers, according to Portillo. He said his requests for a warrant or explanation of the stop were denied.
Bystander video compiled by the advocacy group Siembra NC shows a man in an ICE uniform holding a handgun while breaking Portillo’s driver’s side window. It also shows Portillo yelling, “I am a U.S. citizen,” while agents put him in handcuffs.
“They never told me who they were looking for, and after a long period of argument back and forth, they broke both windows,” Portillo told reporters in Spanish. “They pointed a gun at me, and they threw my phone away. They violently removed me from my vehicle, and they arrested me for 30 minutes while they checked my status.”
Originally from El Salvador, Portillo said he has been living in the U.S. since 1988 and became a naturalized citizen in 2013. His whole family is in the U.S.
Portillo said the agents kept him in handcuffs near the vehicle, despite him repeatedly telling them he was a U.S. citizen. He said he always keeps his passport with him, but at the moment, he didn’t remember it was there.
“They took my wallet out of my pants, and then they saw I had my license there, so I’m assuming that’s the document that they used for verifying my identity and my citizenship,” Portillo said in Spanish.
Agents also handcuffed Portillo’s nephew, he said, who is a U.S. citizen as well. Both men were released after about 30 minutes, but ICE agents took Portillo’s brother into custody, where he is currently detained in Georgia.
Portillo declined to offer further information about his brother, but told reporters he’s exploring legal action against ICE.
“They abused my rights. They treated me with violence,” Portillo said in Spanish. “I have not slept for two nights because I am so worried… I have this fear that they might come to my house in the middle of the night with made-up charges after this experience.”
North Carolina state Rep. Jordan Lopez, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County, said it’s “ridiculous” that ICE agents are operating in this manner.
“We’ve got to do what we can to make it stop,” Lopez said. “It’s a good reminder that there are elections going on right now. There is an extraordinarily powerful check that we as people can put on this administration that has seemed hell-bent on targeting folks and violating rights of citizens.”
Siembra NC legal defense manager Andreina Malki said this isn’t an isolated event. Four U.S. citizens and a visa holder filed a class action lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina in February, claiming Department of Homeland Security agents detained people without warrants, NC Newsline previously reported.
And Malki said it could become a more frequent problem. Earlier this year, state lawmakers overrode Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of Senate Bill 153, the “North Carolina Border Protection Act.” The measure requires local and state law enforcement agencies to work with ICE.
“How many more cases like Atilio’s are we going to have?” she asked.
