ICE agent confronts activist recording 21 arrests during a smuggling operation: ‘They have more rights than we do’
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Homeland Security Investigations agents detain 21 handcuffed individuals at the Ark on Desert Cove apartment complex March 2, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Alma Mendoza)
PHOENIX – An urgent knock on Alma Mendoza’s door alerted her to the situation. She jumped in her car and rushed to the Ark on Desert Cove apartment complex where 21 handcuffed individuals sat lined up on a red brick wall. A fence separated her from the scene, as she approached the playground in the center of the complex with her phone camera rolling.
Mendoza shouted in Spanish: “Do not sign anything, do not say anything, you have rights.”
A federal agent approached her and flashed a light at her camera.
“They’re going to see an immigration attorney. They have rights,” the agent said. “They have more rights than we do. We’re not trying to make a lot of noise in the neighborhood.”
The tense confrontation was captured on video.
DHS declined an interview with Cronkite News but confirmed the arrests in a written statement.
Witnesses said Phoenix police officers were in the vicinity, but not involved in the DHS operation.
“On March 2, 2026, the Phoenix Police Department was made aware of Homeland surveillance operations near the area of 16th Avenue and West Desert Cove,” according to Jennifer Zak, a spokeswoman for the Phoenix Police Department. “There were no Phoenix Police Officers assisting with their operation.”
Mendoza has spent more than two decades observing and recording immigration enforcement incidents. In the past she said she was able to follow officers as long as she stayed 5 feet away.
“I feel like right now, so much hate,” Mendoza said. “Before it was not like this. They were more human. They were taking more responsibility for their jobs.”
Local activist Alma Mendoza describes where she was documenting the Monday night arrests at the Ark on Desert Cove apartment complex in West Phoenix, on March 4, 2026. (Photo by Kinlagh Boudreau/Cronkite News)
‘No more information will be provided’
Immigration-related operations continue in the Valley as Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests have tripled since fiscal year 2024. The Deportation Data Project shows an increase from 1,249 arrests in FY 2024 to 3,821 in FY 2025.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona released a statement announcing charges against 156 immigrants with criminal conduct from Feb. 21 through Feb. 28 2026.
The Homeland Security Agency and U.S. Border Patrol executed two federal search warrants stating that the Desert Cove operation was related to human smuggling.
“Upon making entry at both locations, law enforcement discovered 23 illegal aliens – 21 illegal aliens at the Desert Cove location and 2 aliens at the north 17th avenue location. In total, 20 aliens were arrested on immigration violations and three aliens were arrested on federal criminal charges related to human smuggling. As this is an ongoing investigation, no more information will be provided,” the statement continued.
A piece of the door frame broken off in the raid lies in the center of the apartment complex two days later on March 3, 2026. (Photo by Audrey Lippert/Cronkite News)
A federal agent familiar with Homeland Security said that with HSI involved, there were legitimate criminal charges that needed a judicial warrant.
“Smuggling is going to be basically the trafficking of someone across a border. In that context, when it comes to illegal immigrants, it doesn’t have to necessarily be profit. It can be friends or family helping each other out, or, you know, it could be coyotes,” the agent said. “Trafficking and smuggling are separate things”
The federal agent continued to say that immigration agents are public servants.
“Generally, when an enforcement happens on your apartment complex, and you’re innocent, you’re hard working, generally, you’re supposed to feel relieved, not scared,” the agent said. “Obviously it had the opposite effect, which tells you there’s something wrong with the enforcement action that was taken.”
‘I wouldn’t want to see what it looks like in there’
Joshua Monroe was home on Monday night when federal agents broke down the door and pulled 21 people out of the two bedroom apartment below his.
“It’s a decent size, but 22 people is pretty crazy,” Monroe said. “I wouldn’t want to see what it looks like in there right now.”
When he came home on Wednesday, Monroe noticed the white door. Every other door in his apartment complex was red. He said his neighbors are still nervous days later.
“I know now that this happened here, people are going to assume that people that live around here most definitely said something about that. I truly lived like right upstairs and didn’t even know anything about it,” Monroe said. “But I think from here on out, it’s just gonna bring more, you know, bothersome people around here.”
The white door of an apartment in the Ark on Desert Cove apartment complex in West Phoenix, different from all the other apartments with red doors, on March 4, 2026. (Photo by Kinlagh Boudreau/Cronkite News)
While Monroe was talking a UPS driver delivered a package to the white door. It was the only one dropped off.
As people filtered in and out of the complex on their morning commute they stepped past a piece of the red doorframe left on the ground. One neighbor said he locked himself in his apartment during the arrests. Others told Cronkite News they were aware, but said either they were not around when it happened or did not see it.
Soft music and voices drifted out of one apartment window on the bottom floor. It was three doors down from the raid. The sounds cut through the eerie silence but abruptly stopped when a visitor knocked on the door. No one answered.