FiscalFusion

ROGERS, Ark. — She was already separated from her husband, the family breadwinner and father of her two youngest children, and had lost the home they shared in Arkansas. Then Cristina Osornio was ensnared by the nation’s rapidly expanding immigration enforcement crackdown just months after her husband was deported to Mexico. Following a traffic stop in Benton County, in the state’s northwest corner, she was jailed for several days on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold, records show, even though she is a legal permanent U.S. resident and the mother of six children. Best known as home to Walmart headquarters, the county and the wider region have emerged as a little-known hot spot in the Trump administration’s crackdown, according to an Associated Press review of ICE arrest data, jail records, police reports and interviews with residents, immigration lawyers and watchdogs. The county offers a window into what the future may hold in places where local and state law enforcement authorities cooperate broadly with ICE, as the Department of Homeland Security offers financial incentives in exchange for help making arrests. The partnership in Arkansas has led to the detention and deportation of some violent criminals but also repeatedly turned misdemeanor arrests into the first steps toward deportations, records show. The arrests have split apart families, sparked protests and spread fear through the immigrant community, including people born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Marshall Islands. “Nobody is safe at this point because they are targeting you because of your skin color,” said Osornio, 35, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the U.S. since she was 3 months old. Her odyssey began in September, when an officer in the city of Rogers cited her for driving without insurance and with a suspended license, body cam video shows. She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanor case and taken to the Benton County Jail, where an ICE hold was placed on her. After four days behind bars, she said she was released without explanation. She called it a “very scary” experience that exacerbated her health conditions. More than 450 people were arrested by ICE at the Benton County Jail from Jan.

1 through Oct. 15, according to ICE arrest data from the University of California Berkeley Deportation Data Project analyzed by AP. That’s more than 1.5 arrests per day in the county of roughly 300,000 people. Most of the arrests were made through the county’s so-called 287(g) agreement, which allows deputies to question people booked into the jail about their immigration status. Benton County’s program accounted for more than 4% of roughly 7,000 arrests nationwide under similar programs during the first 9½ months of this year, data shows. Under the program, deputies alert ICE to inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, who are usually held without bond and eventually transferred into ICE custody. After a couple of days, they are often moved to the neighboring Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville, which holds detainees for ICE, before being taken to detention centers in Louisiana and possibly deported. ICE now has more than 1,180 cooperation agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, up from 135 at the start of the administration, and has offered payments to cover training, equipment and salaries in some circumstances. Arrests under the programs have surged as more agencies sign on, particularly in Republican-led states such as Florida. Earlier this year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law requiring all county sheriffs to cooperate with ICE through 287(g) or other expedited detention programs. Benton County’s partnership with ICE has been controversial since its inception nearly 20 years ago. Arrests have shot up this year in the Trump stronghold, which has a large foreign-born population compared with the rest of Arkansas. About half of people arrested under the program have been convicted of crimes, while the other half have charges pending, but the severity varies widely. Jail records show recent ICE holds include people charged with forgery, sexual assault, drug trafficking, theft and public intoxication, with domestic violence and unsafe driving among the most common offenses. Local observers say they have tracked an increase in people facing ICE detention after traffic stops for violations such as driving without a license.

“It just feels more aggressive,” said immigration attorney Nathan Bogart. “We’re seeing people detained more frequently on extremely minor charges. They’ve kind of just been let off the leash now.” County officials refused interview requests; Sheriff Shawn Holloway, a longtime champion of the program, did not respond. Body cam footage shows Officer Myles Tucker pulled Osornio over on Sept. 15 as she drove to a bank to get change for her job at Five Below. Tucker said her insurance was unconfirmed and she made a suspicious turn. He cited her for lacking insurance and driving with a suspended license, and learned she had a warrant related to a 2023 domestic violence case involving her husband. Osornio denied missing a court date and explained she had childcare difficulties due to her husband’s deportation. During the drive to jail, Tucker played Christian music and asked where she was born, saying it was required for jail paperwork. Osornio said she offered to show her residency and Social Security cards but was told to wait for an immigration agent who never appeared. Instead, she was told the ICE hold was lifted. In interviews, nonwhite residents said they fear driving in northwest Arkansas regardless of their legal status, leaving home only for work and relying on delivery services. Ernesto, a 73-year-old custodian from Venezuela whose asylum status was recently revoked, said he has seen people taken away during traffic stops. “Don’t just pull over people because they’re Latino or a foreigner,” he said. Attorney Lilia Pacheco said enforcement has intensified dramatically compared to the first Trump administration. She said her husband was recently pulled over despite obeying traffic laws and let go without explanation, prompting the family to install a dashboard camera for protection.

Many immigrants from Mexico’s Guanajuato state fear cartel violence if deported, while those from El Salvador fear mass detentions, she said. Osornio’s husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, was arrested in September 2024 on misdemeanor charges after allegedly striking a teenage stepson. He said he acted in self-defense and believed the teen called police because he feared deportation. Sanchez-Mendoza was placed on an ICE hold; charges were dropped after he was transferred in January 2025. He later agreed to deportation due to poor conditions at the Louisiana ICE facility and now lives on his family’s farm in Mexico. His absence has devastated the family. Their daughter points at construction sites saying, “Look, Mom, Daddy’s working there.” Osornio lost their home and has struggled to pay rent and bills despite working retail. She suffered a stroke days after her release from jail and is receiving help from a local advocacy group and GoFundMe. Her husband wants her to move to Mexico, but she fears cartel violence and does not want to uproot her children from the only home they’ve known. She is awaiting her new permanent residency card. “Obviously over there it’s the cartels. But here now the scare is with immigration,” she said. “Now we don’t know even if we are safe here anymore. Ever since that happened to me, I don’t go anywhere. I don’t go out of my house.”.