Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, left, holds a news conference on Oct. 27, 2025, with Arnoldo Bazan, center, a U.S. citizen who was arrested by immigration agents. FIEL Houston/Courtesy photoThe father of a U.S. citizen teenager who was tackled by federal immigration agents last week has been deported, an immigrant rights group announced Tuesday afternoon.Arnulfo Bazan was removed to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, just across the border from McAllen, at about noon Monday, said Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of Houston FIEL. Bazan is originally from the state of Michoacán.“It is with profound sadness that we want to let the community know Arnulfo Bazan has been deported. After being intimidated into signing his voluntary departure, he is back home in his country,” FIEL posted on Instagram. “What they did to his family and what they did to Arnulfo is cruel and unjust.”Article continues below this adThe son, Arnoldo Bazan, told reporters Monday that officers in an unmarked car stopped the pair as the teenager was being driven to school. He said that the car with federal agents had no clear indication it belonged to law enforcement, and the officers did not identify themselves as police or immigration agents and wore uniforms that bore no official insignia, he added.Houston Chronicle LogoMake us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.Add Preferred SourceThe father and son went into “fight-or-flight” mode, Bazan said, and tried to leave. Masked agents in other vehicles stopped them and they ran from the car. Bazan said the agents tackled them in a restaurant-supply store near the intersection of South Gessner Road and Beechnut Street.Video of immigration arrest in HoustonVideo provided to FIEL Houston by a bystander shows the Bazans being restrained in the store and the teenager being hauled away, telling officers that he was just being driven to school and is a U.S. citizen.Article continues below this adArnoldo Bazan was eventually released, but his dad was taken to an immigration detention facility in Houston.On the day of the news conference, a spokesperson for the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston did not respond to questions from the Houston Chronicle about how agents are required to identify themselves and did not provide additional information about the incident.Days later, however, a spokesperson with the ICE Houston office said that reports that the agency’s officers “beat up” the teenager were “outright lies,” and “it wasn’t even an ICE officer who was engaged in the physical altercation with him at the store or in the video.”The spokesperson, however, declined to identify which other federal agencies were involved in the arrest and detention of the Bazans and suggested the Chronicle should contact the Houston Police Department, which the ICE spokesperson said responded to the scene.The Chronicle filed an open records request with the Houston Police Department for incident reports from Oct. 23 at the address of the Restaurant Depot the Bazans reportedly entered during the incident. The Houston Police Department said Monday there are no responsive records at that address on that date. Article continues below this ad'Overly aggressive'The family’s next move is unclear. FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa told the Chronicle that Bazan had been deported at the border in 2000 and was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2015.Espinosa said it would likely take a “miracle” for the elder Bazan to be able to enter the country legally. Arnoldo Bazan has other family members in Houston, including his sister, Maria Bazan, who also looks after her brother. “We don’t know if he has an immigration bar. Once we find that information, we would advise the family on what to do next,” he said, referring to a years-long penalty that prevents someone previously deported from reentering the country. “It’s too soon to tell. They didn’t give him any paperwork.”Article continues below this adThe incident has struck another chord with the immigrant rights community in Houston and others who have criticized the federal government’s heavy-handed approach to enforcement in Texas and beyond.In a statement, Houston City Council member Edward Pollard said federal immigration officers’ tactics have devolved into “overly aggressive, intimidating, mask-wearing, [and] unaccountable” activity against residents.“Our country is losing its humanity, its empathy and compassion for our fellow man,” he said. “Immigration enforcement should prioritize those who are dangerous and bring harm to our community, not families, regardless of status, that contribute to our city and have added to the vibrant diversity that we are proud to claim.”This story has been updated with new details from a statement from ICE. The agency denies the allegations against its agents.Article continues below this adOct 28, 2025Immigration ReporterJulián Aguilar is an immigration reporter for the Houston Chronicle. An El Paso native, Aguilar’s journalism career began in 2007 at the Laredo Morning Times. He joined the Texas Tribune in 2009 and extensively reported on immigration, border security and the drug trade for the nonprofit news organization until 2021. His stories on immigration took him from El Paso to border towns in the Rio Grande Valley. Aguilar was part of a team of Tribune journalists who wrote a series of stories about “the reality and the rhetoric” about immigration in Texas. He journeyed by raft with smugglers who ferry people from Guatemala to Mexico, and rode with police officers patrolling the gang-controlled streets of El Salvador. After leaving the Tribune, Aguilar worked at KERA News from 2022 to 2024, then became a freelance reporter. He attended the University of Texas and earned his master's degree in journalism at the University of North Texas.