Immigration Agents Detain a Father-to-Be in Greensboro

This was supposed to be the most exciting time in Marlon Ivan Mendez and Jasmine Lopez’s lives. 

In just six weeks, they expect to welcome their first child, a daughter they want to name Kailani. The baby shower was planned for last Saturday. But on the afternoon of June 2, Mendez was unexpectedly detained by federal agents outside a Greensboro laundromat, Lopez said.

Mendez, 23, is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala. He was scheduled for an appearance at the Guilford County Courthouse on June 2 on a charge for driving while impaired in March, according to his fiancée. According to court records, Mendez’s attorney, Miguel Muñoz, rescheduled his court date when he learned Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were at the courthouse on Monday, Lopez said.

The Thread reached out to Muñoz via phone and email but has not received a response.

Lopez and Mendez left the courthouse and went to do laundry at the Watson Wash & Fold laundromat. They were waiting for their clothes to dry, Lopez said, when two plainclothes agents approached Mendez and started checking his pockets.

“I asked them, ‘Who are you? Why are you touching him?’” Lopez told The Thread. “At first, I thought they were trying to rob him.”

It is unclear how they had tracked Mendez to the laundromat.

Another agent approached wearing a vest. When she again asked who they were, Lopez said the agent identified himself as with the Department of Homeland Security. That department operates Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“The officer told me that they had a list of people who they were detaining, but they refused to show me the paper,” Lopez said.

The agents briefly handcuffed her, and told her to “go back to where you came from,” Lopez said. Lopez was born in Winston-Salem, raised in the Triad, and graduated from Western Guilford High School. She is currently enrolled in a nursing program at Guilford Technical Community College.

The agents took everything Mendez had on him, Lopez said—including his passport. The only thing she was able to keep was his cell phone. Later that day, Mendez called from the Alamance County jail, 27 miles away.

The Thread was not able to confirm the identity of the agents, and requests for comment from the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not been returned.

An Unclear Future

The Alamance County jail has a contract with ICE to hold people detained by the agency, part of the 287(g) program that incentivizes local law enforcement to keep immigrants in their jails, make arrests, access immigration data, and make recommendations to the Department of Homeland Security. The Alamance County Sheriff’s Office partnership with DHS has been in place since May 2020, according to ICE records. Guilford County has not had a 287(g) agreement since November 2010, according to a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office.

When Lopez called the Alamance County jail, she said she was told she wouldn’t be able to see her fiancé because he was there under an immigration detainer. However, according to guidelines outlined on the ICE website, detainees are allowed two visits per week for up to 15 minutes each time.

On June 4, Lt. Phillip Starnes of the Alamance County jail told The Thread Mendez was no longer in the facility’s custody. Mendez—who is listed as Mendez-Batz—was being held at the Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia, as of June 6, according to the ICE Online Detainee Locator System. At this facility, Mendez is allowed one hour of visitation per week per ICE guidelines.

Andrew Willis Garcés, a staffer with the immigrant advocacy organization Siembra NC, said ICE will often take people to a local jail it partners with before sending them to larger immigration processing centers that exist across the country, like the one in Georgia.

Lopez said she has called three immigration attorneys to try to get help, but all of them have told her that there is virtually nothing they can do.

Across the country, there were close to 49,000 people in immigration detention as of May 18, according to federal data. That is the highest number since late 2019. The numbers show that 43 percent of them have no criminal records and only minor offenses on their record, such as traffic violations.

Last week, House Republicans passed a broad immigration bill that would mandate further state cooperation with ICE officials. Senate Bill 153 would require NC Departments of Public Safety and Adult Correction officers, the State Highway Patrol, and the State Bureau of Investigation to carry out ICE functions.

The passage of SB153 would “put even more of our community at risk,” Siembra NC said in a June 6 e-mail on the bill.

‘We Are Better Than This’

At a press conference last week, Siembra NC announced it will soon roll out a new initiative to combat ICE actions in Greensboro. While the organization has long provided ICE-watch and Fourth Amendment trainings, and runs an ICE hotline, it announced this week that it is adding a court watch program. 

Lopez, who was scheduled to be at the press conference, did not attend. But Siembra advocates shared her story and pictures of the couple at the event. 

Her fiancé is a “hardworking, humble man,” Lopez said in a phone interview with The Thread. He wouldn’t hesitate to stop and give money to unhoused people he passed on the street, she said.

Now, the organization will work to try and prevent families like theirs from being separated in the future.

The program will send volunteers with people going to court if they feel unsafe, Garcés said. They will also dispatch people to county courthouses to look out for ICE agents, prioritizing places with higher ICE presence, like Mecklenburg County. He said they may add Guilford County to that list after Monday.

At the press conference, a handful of local clergy joined Siembra to denounce ICE actions in Greensboro.

“What I know to be true is that we are better than this,” said Rev. Wesley Morris of the Faith Community Church. “This is not an immigration issue, a detention issue. It is a community issue.”

Lopez now faces the prospect of giving birth without knowing when or if she will see Mendez again.

“He was very excited,” she said. “He went to all my appointments…. We built our baby’s crib together. Everything was ready for her, and for this to happen now. It’s just sad.”

The couple suffered a miscarriage last year, Lopez said, and were looking forward to the birth of their first child.

“Mostly likely I will have to give birth without him being around,” she said. “I will just have to call him after everything else and after she’s here. That’s pretty much all I can do.”

Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat.

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