8 Aug 7th- Aug 13th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Julio told New Times that he does not have a deportation order and said he hasn’t ever been before a judge in his immigration case. An immigration case lookup using his information returned no cases. Additionally, Julio said, “I have no criminal record.” The incident was Julio’s first run-in with police, he said. ICE did not respond to questions from New Times about the interaction and whether there is a deportation order for Julio. ‘A bunch of white people started popping out’ During the interaction with the DPS trooper, Julio was in contact with his brother, Oscar, an activist connected with Valley immigration rights groups such as People First Project, Puente and Semillas Arizona. Oscar reached out to the hotline of these groups’ rapid response networks and “a bunch of white people started popping out,” Julio said. “Everyone started recording and everything.” Among them was Sam Cooley, an orga- nizer with People First Project and Desert Democracy Indivisible. She received a message about the situation a few minutes before 3:00 p.m. and immediately drove about 15 minutes to Julio’s location. When she arrived, she parked a block away and walked past the four DPS officers who she said were huddling around a vehicle, looking at something. Cooley said she asked the troopers if Julio — whom she had never met — was being detained. “No,” they responded, according to Cooley. “Well, he’s leaving with me right now,” Cooley told officers. She then told Julio to park his car in a nearby parking lot to be picked up later in the day. She then escorted him to her car with the help of two other rapid responders, whom Cooley described as “a gray-haired grandma and her husband.” As they began to walk away, a trooper gave Julio the documentation from the acci- dent, which was the piece of paper that he had needed for his insurance and the purpose of his 911 call. Cooley then drove Julio to a separate location to hand him off to his brother. “As white people, we have to stand up for these people who don’t think they have any rights,” Cooley said. “Julio, honestly, did not think he had rights.” Graves said DPS released Julio because ICE took too long to arrive. “Proper DPS protocol is not to unreasonably extend a stop or investigation for the purpose of immigration related activities,” Graves wrote. He added that “if a Trooper has reasonable suspicion a person is unlawfully in the county, they shall attempt to verify status” as long as it’s “not unreasonably extended.” New Times reached out for comment on the incident to the office of Gov. Katie Hobbs, who appointed the head of DPS. Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater responded that Arizona law requires DPS troopers to “attempt, when practicable, to contact immigration officials” when they have a reasonable suspicion that a person is illegally present in the country. Slater added that the trooper “had reasonable suspicion after the individual voluntarily self-disclosed involvement with ICE.” “The governor has made clear she will use state resources to stop crime and secure the border and believes President Trump should follow through on his promise to focus on deporting violent criminals,” Slater concluded. “She will not use state resources to indiscriminately round people up, go after Dreamers, or attack people who have lived in their community for years, pay taxes, and follow the rules.” Out of fear of being arrested, Julio hasn’t been home since the run-in with DPS. He has been back to work, painting homes in Scottsdale. He said his current customer promised to protect him. He’s less confident that state or local police would do the same. Multiple troopers ultimately responded to the site of a fender bender that resulted in an Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper calling immigration agents. (Courtesy photo) Close Call from p 6
