Alamo teen arrested on video says ICE detained his mother, and local advocate says she was deported

Luis Ochoa, a 17-year-old whose arrest by immigration agents in Alamo, Texas, was caught on video this month, said his mother, Teresa Ochoa, was detained Monday morning at work. 

Denisse Carreon, public relations director for We the People RGV, a local advocacy group, told Across The Americas she had spoken with Teresa Ochoa by phone. Carreon said that agents had been waiting for Ochoa at her place of work when she arrived and that she had been deported shortly after she was detained.

In a video published Monday, Luis Ochoa said his mother was told while in custody that she was detained because of social media posts. “My mom just called me, and she said that at the office they told her they picked her up because of all the posts on Facebook,” he said in Spanish.

In the same video, Luis said he had previously been offered money to stay quiet about his arrest, and that he was told his undocumented relatives would be detained if he kept talking publicly about the incident.

“Luis said that the agency told him they were basically going to target them,” said Carreon. “So it's very unfortunate that the threat became true.”

ICE did not address a request for comment on Teresa's detention or Luis' account of what he said she was told. Instead, it provided a statement from a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson about the confrontation that led to Luis' arrest, along with another 17-year-old who was with him, on Sept. 11.

“Violence against ICE officers, or any law enforcement personnel, will not be tolerated,” read the statement. “Our officers carry out their Congressionally mandated duties in service to public safety and the rule of law. Any bystander or individual who assaults, obstructs, or violently attacks officers will be subject to arrest and prosecution permitted by law.”

Neither ICE nor DHS has confirmed Teresa Ochoa's arrest or deportation to Across The Americas. Several videos posted on social media Monday morning appear to show her arrest.

The office of Rep. Monica De La Cruz, a Republican whose district includes parts of Alamo, did not respond to a request for comment.

Carreon said We the People RGV and Carnalismo Brown Berets are calling for a formal congressional hearing and an independent investigation into the Ochoa family's case and the release of any available body camera footage of the incidents.

Trinidad Gonzales, a South Texas historian and co-founder of Refusing to Forget, an award-winning public history nonprofit, said the Ochoas’ case is spreading so quickly online because it strikes the nerve of a cultural tension in the region.

“Americanism in South Texas is founded on military participation,” said Gonzales on a call with Across The Americas. “In a Telemundo interview, the mother was questioning whether [Luis] should continue in pursuing enlisting in the Marines.”

Luis Ochoa and the friend who was arrested with him say they were on their way to a Marine Corps recruiter's office when agents stopped them, and the Marine Corps Recruiting Command told Stars and Stripes the two had met with recruiters before.

Gonzales said Mexican Americans in South Texas have long used military service to show they belong in the U.S., from the World War I veterans who helped found LULAC to the World War II veterans behind the American GI Forum, so the arrest of two teens trying to join the Marines strikes at a core feeling for many in the local community.

“I think the community's response is coming up, and it should be coming up in November,” said Gonzales, referring to the midterm elections, when three Rio Grande Valley congressional races could help decide control of the U.S. House.

“There has to be a political cost to Republicans engaging in this policy,” said Gonzales.

The Ochoa family first drew public attention after a Sept. 11 encounter on North Alamo Road. Luis Ochoa, 17, said he and a friend of the same age were headed to enlist in the Marine Corps when they pulled over to film immigration agents detaining people near Santos Livas Elementary School.

Luis said an agent sprayed him with pepper spray. Video recorded by a bystander and posted online shows his friend pinned on the road as an agent strikes his head several times. Both teens say they are U.S. citizens. They spent roughly eight hours in custody, they say, before agents let them go.

DHS described the pair as “anti-ICE agitators.” It said one of them pounded on the window of an officer's vehicle and then resisted arrest. The department also said deportation officers sustained minor injuries and were treated at a local clinic.

According to KRGV, the teens reported the incident to Alamo police, who sent the case to the DHS inspector general's office.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, the country's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, called last week for constituents to contact their local congressional representatives about the Ochoa case and urge them to use their oversight power over ICE.

“Constitutional rights should matter to everyone,” read a social media post that included LULAC and Rio Grande Valley organizations. “South Texas deserves leaders who speak up when their constituents need answers, not after the news cycle moves on.”

In February, the Gámez-Cuéllar family of McAllen spent about two weeks in ICE custody. Agents took the parents and their three sons into custody when the family showed up for a scheduled check-in with immigration officials, relatives said. Two of the boys play in Mariachi Oro, McAllen High School's award-winning mariachi group. Lawmakers from both parties spoke out before the family was freed.

In June, a nun who works as a nurse in the Valley was stopped by agents on a Sunday morning on her way to church. Sister Leticia “Letty” Ugboaja, who is from Nigeria, went home later that day. De La Cruz and Rep. Henry Cuellar, whose district includes parts of the Rio Grande Valley, each said their offices had contacted DHS about her case.

“That is not what ICE is there for. ICE needs to go and catch criminals, murderers, rapists, not hardworking people,” said Carreon. “And they need to because now they’re getting people who are U.S. citizens like me. I mean, it's scary. We're living in dark times here.”