DACA Recipient Released After Adelita Grijalva Mounts Pressure on ICE

Karla Toledo, a Tucson DACA recipient who came to the U.S. at age one, was taken from her home by ICE agents Monday morning and released Friday after five days in federal custody.

Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) drove to a Tucson ICE holding facility this previous Monday after Toledo's family was unable to confirm where she was being held.

After visiting her, Rep. Grijalva called the arrest unlawful. "ICE's blatant disregard for the rule of law and due process is outrageous and completely out of line," she said, adding that agents had entered the home without a judge-signed warrant, disregarding the legal requirement for entering a private residence.

Video from the arrest showed agents dismissing Toledo's repeated requests to see proper paperwork. One agent told her, "We know what we're doing" in response to her asking for a judge-signed warrant.

Grijalva's Push Back

When ICE issued a statement midweek alleging Toledo had assaulted one of their officers, Grijalva pushed back hard. "ICE has zero credibility and cannot be taken at their word," she said, pointing out that the statement took nearly 48 hours to produce and still did not address the warrant question.

She demanded the agency release any body camera footage to back the allegation, calling the late statement part of a pattern. "Smearing people after the fact and gaslighting the public is part of ICE's playbook whenever they face scrutiny over their actions."

Additionally, Toledo has no criminal history. She works recruiting healthcare workers, volunteers in the community, and serves on local boards, someone Grijalva described as "the complete opposite of the 'worst of the worst' that Trump claimed he would prioritize."

Toledo was then released on Friday. Grijalva said the agents involved should be investigated and held accountable, and that the incident raised serious questions about an agency she said "continues to act as if they are above the law."

"She should have never been detained in the first place," Grijalva said. "I can't even begin to imagine the trauma of being ripped from your home by masked agents."