Family Heartbroken After Napa Man Arrested By ICE Agents
NAPA (KPIX 5) -- As ICE agents made arrests across the state Sunday during their latest crackdown, KPIX 5 spoke to a teen girl from Napa who watched in tears as her father was taken away.
Video posted on Snapchat captured the moment of the arrest just after 9 a.m. Sunday morning.
ICE agents took Armando Nunez Salgado into custody outside his home. According to family members, he was in the backyard when agents walked right in through the side gate. His 14-year-old daughter Isabel Salgado dissolved into tears.
"I cried. I got very emotional, I was really sad," said Isabel. "I mean to watch someone who is part of your everyday life and then you just have to watch him leave without saying goodbye. It kind of hurts."
Armando is a construction worker who has been in America more than 30 years. His wife Elena Ponce said his parents brought him to the U.S. when he was only four years old.
Elena says when the wine country wildfires raged last October, her husband helped her brothers as they volunteered their heavy construction equipment to make fire lines that helped control the flames.
"We were all helping. This is our home. This is his home too," said Elena. "So the fact that they took someone off like that. I don't see the sense in it all. He wasn't a danger to the community in any way."
But it turns out, Armando does have a dangerous past. After our interview, his family members told KPIX 5 he was involved in gangs and drugs for a long time.
In fact, at one point, he was on ICE's most wanted list for charges of felony force and assault with a deadly weapon.
His family would not elaborate on his past crimes, but they insist that in recent years he went through a rehabilitation program and that he is no longer involved in gangs and drugs. And they said he has been deeply involved in the community.
Sunday night, Armando Nunez Salgado sits in a federal immigration facility in Elk Grove. His future is uncertain.