Facts unclear in US citizen's arrest

EMILY BREGEL

Arizona Daily Star

After an illegal-entry case was dismissed against a 19-year-old U.S. citizen arrested by a Tucson Sector border agent this month, Homeland Security officials say the teen made 'a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully.'

Homeland Security also contends the teen, Jose Hermosillo, 'approached Border Patrol in Tucson' and turned himself in before making that statement, contradicting the initial report from a Tucson border agent.

'This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo's own actions and statements,' said Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a Monday post on X, formerly Twitter.

Citing privacy protections for U.S. citizens, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection initially said the agency could not release Hermosillo's sworn statement.

But later on Monday, DHS posted the redacted statement on X, which appears to show Hermosillo attesting he was born in Mexico and entered the U.S. illegally 'through the desert' the day prior. The three-page, typewritten document shows 'Jose' scrawled in child-like print at the bottom of two pages.

In the statement, in which Hermosillo appears to answer an agent's questions with one- to three-word responses, Hermosillo said he planned to stay in the U.S. for 20 years, 'for work.' A Tucson magistrate judge dismissed the case against Hermosillo on Friday, April 17, after Hermosillo had already spent nine days in an immigration detention center in Florence. He had been accused of illegal entry, a misdemeanor on the first attempt, and told the court he was a citizen on April 10. He remained detained for another week, despite his attorney sharing his birth certificate with the prosecution on April 11.

Some of the claims in DHS's statement conflict with the sworn statement from a Tucson Border Patrol agent in an April 9 complaint he filed with U.S. District Court about Hermosillo's arrest, which was first reported by Arizona Public Media.

In the complaint, Border Patrol Agent Eric R. Wood said 'agents found' Hermosillo 'at or near Nogales, Arizona' — which is about 70 miles from Tucson, where McLaughlin claimed the teenager approached Border Patrol himself.

In a brief phone conversation with the Arizona Daily Star on Monday, Hermosillo said he was visiting his girlfriend's family in Tucson, during a trip from his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He went for a walk — he could not identify where he was to the Star — and was approached by a single border agent, he said.

Hermosillo said that after the agent asked for his birth certificate, Hermosillo told him he was a U.S. citizen. He said the agent replied, 'Do you think

I'm stupid?' before detaining him.

Unclear stories

Both DHS's account, and Hermosillo's, raise questions. DHS claims Hermosillo approached the Border Patrol station in Tucson off South Swan Road to turn himself in; the station is located off major roads and isn't easily accessible by foot.

Although the DHS document states the interview with Hermosillo was conducted in Spanish, Hermosillo appeared to be fluent in English, and his attorney told the Star he preferred English.

In his brief conversation with the Star, which he ended abruptly, Hermosillo shared little detail on what happened and where he was headed when he was detained.

Tucson immigration attorney Jesse Evans-Schroeder told the Star she has 'very little faith' in the type of sworn statement cited here, which are 'typically riddled with inaccuracies or expected/desired responses, rather than true responses.'

Also, signatories of these statements don't always know what they're signing, Evans-Schroeder wrote in a Monday email.

CBP now uses a 'little signature tablet for the affiant to sign which is *not* connected to any screen on which you can see what the officer wrote,' she said. 'The CBP guidance literally says that this is very handy for them, because they can make 'corrections' to the statements without having to go back and get a new signature.'

Due to the uncertainty of what happened, DHS should conduct an investigation of the incident, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, a research and analysis nonprofit that advocates for immigrant rights.

'DHS would normally carry out an investigation of any arrest of a U.S. citizen and determine the full facts of the matter before commenting publicly,' he said. 'Unfortunately, that does not appear to have happened here.'

Attorney calls case 'disturbing'

Greg Solares, the criminal-defense attorney appointed to represent Hermosillo in U.S. District Court, told the Star that when he first encountered Hermosillo in court on April 10, the young man was crying. Solares began speaking to him in Spanish and Hermosillo responded in English, explaining that he was a U.S. citizen.

'When he talked to me, he said they (border agents) kept asking him questions in Spanish and he kept telling them, 'I speak English,' ' Solares said.

Solares said even after he shared a copy of Hermosillo's U.S. birth certificate with the U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutor assigned to the case, the prosecutor did not drop the case against Hermosillo. Solares said he emailed a copy of the birth certificate to the prosecutor on Friday, April 11, and tried to reach the prosecutor again the following Monday, April 14, when he didn't get a response.

Solares still heard nothing back until the day of Hermosillo's detention hearing on April 17, he said. Even that morning, the prosecutor was initially 'adamant' about taking the case to trial, after defense attorney Solares said his client would not be pleading guilty in the case, since he was a U.S. citizen, Solares recounted.

The prosecutor's insistence was unusual, he said.

'We've had really good relationships for the most part with the government. You always think they're gonna do the right thing. They're gonna see this and say, 'This is an injustice and we're going to dismiss it,' ' he said. 'It just baffles me as far as why they did this.'

Solares said on April 16, he requested information from the prosecutor's office, such as arrest reports and any narrative of what happened when his client was arrested. He never received it, Solares said, despite DHS later releasing the 'sworn statement' publicly.

'I asked specifically on Wednesday, before the court, 'Please supply any disclosures that you have,'' including incident reports, narratives, photographs or interview recordings, he said. 'I'm not saying they falsified it. But if they're not going to show me that report when they should have, I don't know what they wrote after they dismissed the case. They could have added stuff.'

The Star has made a public records request to CBP, seeking the incident report for Hermosillo's arrest.

Solares said prosecutors claimed in court that Hermosillo had admitted to being in the country illegally. But Solares said an admission like that would be irrelevant, considering the documentation proving his U.S. citizenship, and the lack of evidence that he was a foreign national, Solares told the Star.

'The guy could have admitted he's from the Moon; it doesn't mean anything,' he said.

Ultimately on Thursday, the case against Hermosillo was dismissed, though Hermosillo wasn't released until the early morning hours of Friday, April 18, due to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold on him, Solares said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona did not respond to the Star's request for comment Monday regarding the prosecutor's lack of response to the submission of Hermosillo's birth certificate.

The Star has reported that nationwide, U.S. Attorneys' Offices are facing pressure from the Trump administration to prioritize immigration cases — even the misdemeanor crime of illegal entry on the first attempt, the charge against Hermosillo — above other criminal prosecutions, amid Trump's mass deportation campaign.

Solares called the case 'disturbing,' saying it makes him fear for the safety of his own 20-year-old son.

'We're talking about a brownskinned kid here, like my son,' he said. 'It scares the heck out of me.'

The Star's Tim Steller contributed to this report. Contact reporter Emily Bregel at ebregel@tucson.com.

On X, formerly Twitter: @ EmilyBregel