Father Detained by ICE Returns Home After San Marcos Arrest

For nearly three months, Gerardo Reyes Gonzalez missed the simple joys of life, according to his stepdaughter. He missed good food, a good night's sleep and a comfortable shower. And while he has been able to enjoy those pleasures since returning home earlier this week, his stepdaughter said, he has still been having nightmares about having them stripped away again. Reyes Gonzalez, who does not have legal authorization to be in the country, was taken to a federal immigration detention center in March after a tense traffic stop that resulted in his and his 17-year-old son's arrest. San Marcos police have since acknowledged that the arresting officer broke department policy, and, after a successful legal filing, Reyes Gonzalez was released from detention on Monday. Reyes Gonzalez, a San Antonio-based cook and the family’s primary breadwinner, is the father of three U.S.-born children, according to his family. His detention left the family struggling to catch up on bills, Sarinana said. And despite a tearful reunion with his children, he's haunted by the months he spent in a Central Texas detention center. “He’s traumatized right now," his stepdaughter, Guadalupe Sarinana, told the American-Statesman. “He says that when he sleeps — or when he tries to — he hears in his head the guards yelling at him, or people crying about getting out. Things that he would hear at night when they would lock them up.” Reyes Gonzalez’s detention began with a March 14 traffic stop in San Marcos involving his son, Esteban Reyes. Officer Jaciel Cortina stopped the red Toyota Tacoma that Esteban Reyes was driving while police were responding to a report involving a 15-year-old girl who was believed to have tried to leave home and get into a vehicle. Police later confirmed the girl had not left the home and that no crime had occurred in connection with the original call. Cortina arrested Esteban Reyes after the teenager refused to get out of the truck. Reyes Gonzalez, who was in the passenger seat, was arrested after police accused him of interfering with officers as they removed his son from the vehicle. Cell phone video of the encounter, recorded by Reyes Gonzalez, showed him holding his son’s arm as officers removed the teenager from the truck. A Statesman review of the published video did not find an instance in which Reyes Gonzalez told police they could not take his son, though Cortina wrote in an affidavit that Reyes Gonzalez had repeatedly said officers would not be taking his son out of the truck. “Sir, that’s my son,” Reyes Gonzalez said repeatedly in the video. “He’s 17 years old.” San Marcos police later said Cortina violated three department policies during the arrests. In a May 12 update, the city said the department’s internal review found that Cortina made an inaccurate statement in a probable cause affidavit, failed to articulate the basis for the detention and failed to verify the juvenile’s location and conduct investigative questioning before making arrests. Cortina received a 24-hour suspension and was ordered to complete retraining on de-escalation and investigative practices, according to police. Sarinana said the family still does not believe Cortina’s discipline was enough. “I feel like it was a slap in the face,” she said. “They were forced to do the right thing because there was so much public pressure.” After Reyes Gonzalez was booked into the Hays County jail, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on him, and he was later transferred to the T. Don Hutto Detention Center in Taylor. Sarinana said the family learned Monday that Reyes Gonzalez’s habeas petition — a request for a federal judge to review whether immigration officials had legal authority to keep him detained — had been approved and that he would be released that evening, earlier than the family expected. She said the family had not yet received a full explanation from his attorney but understood the filing to have challenged the legality of his detention. His release does not end his immigration case. Sarinana said the family is still trying to help Reyes Gonzalez obtain legal status, a process she said had been interrupted in previous years by financial strain, her mother’s disabling car crash and an earlier scam. In the May 12 update, San Marcos Police Chief Stan Standridge recommended that the department adopt a policy for handling U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative warrants and detainers, but the city did not respond to the Statesman's questions about the policy itself or whether it had taken effect. The recommendation was one of several changes Standridge called for after reviewing the March 14 arrests. The city said the department also planned to establish mandatory supervisory and command protocols for significant incidents, amend policies on report accuracy and the basis for detentions and arrests, require use of a standard translation application, create a public dashboard for use-of-force and de-escalation metrics, and establish a formal police leadership academy.