After 25 years in US, Arizona father detained by ICE while on way to job repairing homes

It started out like any other workday for Arizona father Joel Gutierrez. He left home, picked up his co-worker, and drove towards their job of rebuilding houses in Mesa. 

Then things took a turn, and Gutierrez’s life changed — possibly forever.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pulled Gutierrez over. According to his 19-year-old daughter, Denise Gutierrez, the agents racially profiled her father and stopped him because he was Latino and driving a white work van.

“They’re profiling a bunch of people that aren’t even doing anything wrong,” Denise said in an interview. 

The agents assumed — correctly — that Gutierrez and his co-worker were undocumented. They detained the men on the spot and transported them to the Florence Service Processing Center and later to the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center.

The family has been in a state of shock ever since.

“It was a complete surprise for us,” Denise said. “We didn’t think this was going to happen to our family, and we knew that my dad was really scared.”

Searching for the American dream

After the birth of his second daughter in Mexico, Gutierrez knew he wanted more for his children. He didn’t want them to struggle the way he did. Both Gutierrez and his wife had been working since they were just 8 years old. They didn’t want that for their kids.

He made the difficult decision to flee Mexico, leaving his home behind and coming to the US in pursuit of a better life for his children. His wife joined him five years later with the children.

Gutierrez and his wife have four children — two immigrated from Mexico and two were born here and are US citizens.

Gutierrez built a life for his family in Mesa. He began working in construction and later moved into rebuilding houses. He sent his children to school. It was exactly what they were looking for — an opportunity to do more.

Denise, who was born in the US, described her father as an upstanding citizen: he pays his taxes on time, is early to every appointment, and meticulously follows the law.

After living in the US for 25 years, Gutierrez and his family knew they were American, whether or not they had the paperwork to prove it. His two youngest children were born in the US and don’t know of any other life. 

But last week, it all came crashing down when the family received a call from Gutierrez’s brother, informing the family of what had happened. 

“It was honestly the worst news we’ve ever gotten,” said Denise.

The night before was a regular night for the family. Denise had spent some time talking with her dad, asking for permission to spend the night at her sister’s. 

“Yeah, of course. Have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Gutierrez said.

By the next morning, the family’s world fell apart.

‘They don’t have basic necessities’

Denise and her sister rushed home after receiving word that their dad had been picked up by ICE. Over the past few months, they’d begun to understand their father was at greater risk, as the Trump administration ramped up mass deportations and reports of ICE raids spread across the country.

Arizona has been at the center of ICE activity. Last month, ICE agents detained more than a dozen unsuspecting immigrants who were arriving for regularly scheduled court hearings at the Phoenix immigration court, prompting daily protests outside the courthouse.

This week, immigration advocacy groups warned of increased ICE presence across Arizona, particularly at workplaces, following last week’s raid at a Home Depot targeting workers in the Los Angeles area. The raids have prompted protests, starting in Los Angeles and spreading across the country to Dallas, Chicago, New York, and dozens of other cities, with community members fighting back against mass deportations.

Gutierrez knew there was always a chance of arrest, but often reassured the family not to worry about it, “because that’s the kind of man he is,” Denise said.

“If it has to happen, it’s going to happen. There’s nothing we can do to avoid it,” he would often say, according to Denise.

Now, he’s sitting in ICE detention, far from his family.

Gutierrez was first taken to the Florence Staging Center for processing, where detainees shared bunk beds, her father told her. 

“It’s terrible. They don’t have basic necessities,” Denise said of the staging center. “They give them tiny little packets full of toothpaste. You have to make it last because you don’t know when you’re going to get another one.”

“It got too crowded, and there wasn’t even space for people to regularly move around,” Denise said.

Gutierrez complained about the scalding hot water at the staging center that made it difficult for him to shower.

“He feels like they do it on purpose to torture people, that it physically burns when you’re showering,” Denise said.

Because the staging center was at capacity, he was transferred to Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center, where his daughter said conditions are even worse.

The human cost

Since January, ICE has arrested over 26,000 people, with 995 of those arrests taking place in Phoenix, according to federal data.

Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a project of Syracuse University that compiles immigration figures, estimates that of the 51,302 people currently being held in ICE detention facilities, nearly 44% had no criminal record aside from entering the US without authorization.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that not every immigrant targeted is a lawbreaker. When asked by MSNBC if everyone arrested by ICE has a criminal record, President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said “absolutely not.”

Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, nonetheless recently expressed frustration with ICE’s “low” rate of arrests and set a new quota for the agency to conduct 3,000 arrests per day. To meet these quotas, Miller directed ICE officials to arrest daylaborers at workplaces such as Home Depot and 7-Eleven.

ICE has since changed tactics, working seven days a week, conducting workplace raids, and asking the public to report tips to support the Trump administration’s effort to dramatically increase deportations. This escalation has led to countless horror stories across the country, including the deportation of a California fourth grader to Honduras, the arrest of a Florida pastor after 26 years in the country, and the detention of a pregnant US citizen, also in California. 

Denise believes her father’s arrest, which upended her family’s life, was part of the effort to meet that quota.

“What they’re doing is terrible. It’s horrible. They’re splitting up families, making hardworking people suffer to reach their quotas in order to make more money,” said Denise.

Gutierrez is the family’s backbone. He is the sole provider and the heart of the family. Without him, they’re at a loss. It has been particularly difficult for his 9-year-old son, who keeps asking, “Is my dad coming?” while patiently waiting by the window, looking for his dad’s van. 

He never shows.

It’s a tight-knit family. Every Sunday, they have a “family day,” spending time together doing activities like going to the zoo, the aquarium, or the movie theater.

But last Sunday, Gutierrez was behind bars in a detention center, where he told Denise he’s not even allowed to go outside. 

That same day, his daughter attended a rally hosted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) that called for Gutierrez’s immediate release. Around 100 protestors marched through downtown Phoenix in support of the family and against the Trump administration’s policies.

The family has started a GoFundMe and is asking for the public’s support to bring their father home. 

“It’s not just my family. It’s hundreds of others, more kids that are going home to their parents not being there,” Denise said. “They’re breaking apart families and they are making people suffer for no reason.”