Aharon Rosales of Bloomington, who spent time detained by ICE in Kentucky, is in the same situation as a lot of immigrants.
According to The Guardian’s analysis of ICE arrest data, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests were up 268 percent for June compared with the same month last year. According to NBC News, the sharpest increase in arrests was for people without a criminal record, making up about 70 percent of the more than 57,000 people detained in the U.S.
The most common offenses for people in these circumstances are immigration and traffic related.
And that’s the case for Rosales, who paid a traffic citation earlier this year and entered a pre-trial diversion program in 2024 after being cited for driving without a license. He’s back with his family in Bloomington after being detained by ICE in April. His mom and sister spoke with WTIU then, and said Rosales wasn’t the type of person they thought ICE was looking for.
His sister, Ahlai Carballo, described him as warmhearted and hardworking, “especially because of his children.”
He has two children who live in Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
“And the reason we moved to the United States is because we were struggling financially over there,” Ahlai said. “So of course, all the hard work that he puts in, it's so he can send money over for his children and their food and school.”
Aharon had been living and working in the U.S. since 2017 as undocumented before he was detained in April.
His sister, Ahlai, translated for him in an interview this month with WFIU/WTIU News.
His mom was driving him and a co-worker, Manuel Sente-Tevelan, to work as painters when ICE pulled them over.
ICE agents were looking for Sente-Tevelan, who had pending charges in Monroe County. But they asked Aharon for his ID, too, and saw he was undocumented.
“So, then the officer said, ‘Okay, then you're coming with us too,’” Ahlai said.
He arrived at the Hopkins County Jail, an ICE detention facility in Kentucky, on May 1. When he got there, officers told him he would have to stay.
“He said that it was mentally really hard for him, especially the first couple weeks,” Ahlai said. “And it takes a lot of strength to be in there. It felt like a mental torture.”
Aharon described extremely uncomfortable conditions: lights on at all hours, limited food, a thin pad for a mattress, only warm tap water for drinking, and only being allowed to go outside two days a week.
Read more: Mother, sister of Bloomington man detained by ICE speak out
His coworker, Sente-Tevelan, was eventually processed and voluntarily deported to Mexico.
The only redeeming thing about his time in jail were calls with his family, Aharon said.
He added that many others detained at the facility didn’t have the resources to make calls, and he’s grateful his mom and sister found a lawyer – Christie Popp – to gather documentation for his case and prove he wasn’t a flight risk.
Ahlai said Popp focused on collecting information to prove Aharon wasn’t a flight risk.
“(Popp) wanted to collect a lot of letters from the company he works for, from relatives, friends, that could give a testimony that he was not a danger for his community,” Ahlai said. “And after his lawyer got all the information, she could get to ask for a bail.”
Indiana has more than 50,000 pending immigration court cases pending, according to data kept by tracreports.org. More than 2,400 cases have been filed this year.
Popp, an immigration lawyer in Bloomington, said because Aharon doesn’t have a criminal record, was easier to prove he wasn’t dangerous or a flight risk.
“You have to work really hard to show ties to a community, that there's somebody there who's willing to ensure that they go to court, that they are they have applied for status, if that's what they're going to do,” Popp said.
Of pending immigration cases in Indiana, only 83 are criminal or national security related. More than 25,000 are “entry without inspection” and 27,000 are “other immigration charges.” About 460 of the cases are for someone in Monroe County.
Popp added any criminal record can hurt someone’s chances with an immigration judge.
Aharon said he was among the few granted bail, which the judge set at $10,000.
When he heard the judge granted his bond, he felt relief. “It was unbelievable for him, because there is no way out for a lot of people,” Ahlai said.
Aharon was one of at least four men detained in Bloomington at the end of April, in what an ICE press release called a multi-agency operation.
He isn’t sure how long he’ll be allowed to stay in the U.S. and is applying for a work visa. Most people he met at Hopkins County Jail had minor offenses, like traffic infractions, following the national trend. He said it’s his faith in God that’s brought him this far.
He wanted to share his experience to warn people that it’s important to follow the law.
“Maybe this can be a lesson for us as well,” Ahlai said for him, “to follow the rules and do everything by the book, because it can affect the people that are not doing these offenses.”
After being detained, Aharon isn’t sure he should have come to the U.S. But he needed to make money for his family.
“He said he's not sure if this was the best decision,” Ahlai said. “But it was definitely the best chance that he had.”
