Quiet corner of Arkansas has become hot spot for US immigration crackdown, AP finds

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 US 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.

"Nobody is safe at this point because they are targeting you because of your skin colour," said Osornio, 35, who was born in Mexico but has lived in the US since she was 3 months old.

She was arrested on a warrant for missing a court appearance in a misdemeanour 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.

Benton County offers the kind of help ICE wants nationwide --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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, analysed 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, named for a section of immigration law, that allows deputies to question people who are booked into the jail about their immigration status.

Under the programme, deputies alert ICE to inmates suspected of being in the country illegally, who are usually held without bond and eventually transferred into ICE custody.

ICE now has more than 1,180 cooperation agreements with state and local law enforcement agencies, up from 135 at the start of the new administration, and it has offered federal payments to cover the costs of training, equipment and salaries in some circumstances. Arrests under the programmes have surged in recent months as more agencies get started, ICE data shows.

The growth has been particularly pronounced in Republican-led states such as Florida, where new laws encourage or require such cooperation. Earlier this year, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a law requiring all county sheriffs to cooperate with ICE through either a 287(g) programme at the jail or a programme in which they serve ICE warrants to expedite detentions and removals.

ICE arrests have surged in Benton County this year ----------------------------------------------------------- Benton County's partnership with ICE has been controversial off and on since its inception nearly 20 years ago.

ICE data shows arrests have shot up this year in the county, a Trump stronghold in a heavily Republican state that has a large foreign-born population compared with other parts of Arkansas.

About half of those arrested by ICE through the programme have been convicted of crimes, while the other half have charges pending, according to the data. But the severity of the charges ranges widely.

"It just feels more aggressive. We're seeing people detained more frequently on extremely minor charges," said Nathan Bogart, an immigration attorney. "They've kind of just been let off the leash now." Sheriff Shawn Holloway, who has championed the programme since his election in 2015, did not respond to several interview requests. The sheriff's office spokesperson referred questions to ICE.

A routine traffic stop turns into an ICE hold --------------------------------------------------- Body cam video shows that police officer Myles Tucker pulled Osornio over on Sept. 15 in a quiet neighbourhood of Rogers as she drove to a bank to get change for her job at the retail chain Five Below.

Tucker said he stopped Osornio because a check of her license plate number indicated that her auto insurance was unconfirmed, and he thought she made a suspicious turn after seeing police.

Osornio disputed that she missed a court hearing. She told the officer that her husband had been deported and that she needed to arrange child care for her children.

During the drive to the jail, Tucker played upbeat Christian-themed music in his patrol vehicle.

Osornio said she was baffled about why she was placed on an ICE hold. She offered to show her residency and Social Security cards, but jail staff told her she would have to meet with an immigration agent in a few days. She said that never happened, and instead, she was told the hold was "lifted." Cpl. Don Lisi, spokesperson for the Rogers Police Department, said his agency has "nothing to do with" the county's ICE partnership.

But jail records show dozens of the department's recent arrests have turned into ICE detentions once suspects are booked. Advocates for immigrants allege the department and others nearby engage in racial profiling in traffic stops.

Afraid of racial profiling, local residents take precautions ----------------------------------------------------------------- "This is a kind of jail, one would say," said Ernesto, 73, a school custodian born in Venezuela, from his apartment filled with Christmas decorations. He spoke on the condition that only his first name be used to avoid retaliation.

One of Ernesto's adult daughters was recently stripped of her asylum status, and his temporary legal status also recently expired. He recently witnessed authorities "taking away people" from a traffic stop.

"Don't just pull over people because they're Latino or a foreigner," he said. "I hope that all this is over soon, that the state of Arkansas sees who the immigrants are that are doing good here." Rogers-based attorney Lilia Pacheco said she started practising law in the area during the first Trump administration, and "it's day and night between the first administration as far as enforcement." She said Benton County authorities have taken their cooperation with ICE to new heights, stepping up traffic stops, assisting with arrests and welcoming undercover agents.

"We're seeing that shift here, and I think that's given rise to the arrests and operations in the area," she said. "It looks like their relationship is a lot closer than we anticipated that it would be." Pacheco said her husband was recently pulled over in Rogers while taking their daughter to school, when he was driving the speed limit and could not understand why. The officer asked for his driver's license, and he was let go without a ticket, she said.

The family has since installed a dashboard camera in their car so that they can record any future interactions with police after the Supreme Court decision that allowed ICE to racially profile, she said.

Pacheco said many who live in the area are from the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, and fear deportation because of a rise in violence linked to drug cartels. After the husband's deportation, the family has struggled ----------------------------------------------------------------- Osornio said she has been with her husband, Edwin Sanchez-Mendoza, for eight years. They got together a couple of years after he illegally crossed the border from Mexico when he was in his late teens.

Court records show Sanchez-Mendoza was arrested on misdemeanor charges in September 2024 after he was accused of striking one of his teenage stepsons.

Sanchez-Mendoza told police he was restraining the stepson in self-defence and believed the teen called police to scare him since he was not in the country legally. A Bentonville officer wrote in a report that the sheriff's office should check "the legality of Edwin's nationality status." Sanchez-Mendoza was placed on a hold for ICE at the Benton County Jail. The charges were dropped after ICE transferred him elsewhere in January 2025.

Ultimately, Osornio said her husband ended up at an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, where he found the conditions unbearable. He agreed to be deported and was flown last spring to Mexico, where he has since moved back to his rural hometown and helps on the family farm.

His absence has been devastating financially and emotionally, Osornio said. When they drive past construction sites, their young daughter says, "Look, Mom, Daddy's working there," she said.

The family could no longer afford their house. Osornio got the retail job but has struggled to pay for the apartment where they moved and their bills. She's getting help from a local advocacy organisation and asking for help on GoFundMe.

She suffers from high blood pressure and said she suffered a stroke days after her release from jail.

Osornio said Sanchez-Mendoza wants her to move to Mexico, and she and the kids visited him in May. But she's agonizing over the decision, saying she fears it would put her children in danger of cartel violence and that she knows the US as home.

She's anxiously waiting for her new permanent residency card to arrive after receiving a temporary extension earlier this year.

"Obviously, over there it's the cartels. But here now the scare is with immigration. Now we don't know even if we are safe here anymore," she said. "Ever since that happened to me, I don't go anywhere. I don't go out of my house."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)