Siblings shaken after feds raid Gary home, arrest family — 'They punched me in the eye'

Arnoldo Carrillo Jr. still has the black eye he received after he said six agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Marshals Service forced their way into his family’s home in Gary, Indiana, last week.

The entire incident unfolded about 6 a.m. Oct. 23, when the 26-year-old saw flashlights through his window.

Soon after, he heard someone yell, ‘U.S. Marshals! Open up!’”

“Not even a minute has gone by where they were just banging on the door, and then they used a ram to just force open the door,” he said.

According to Carrillo, the agents grabbed him and took him outside.

“They choked me very hard, and then they punched me in the eye, all while asking me why am I resisting when I was not resisting at all,” he said.

They then knocked him to the ground and put him in handcuffs, he said.

In the end, federal agents took the entire family into custody: Arnoldo Carrillo Jr., his father, Rosario; his mother, Martha; his 24-year-old sister, Sarai, and their 14-year-old brother Eli. Arnoldo and Sarai were both released. Rosario, Martha and Eli are still in custody.

While Arnoldo and his siblings are all U.S. citizens born and raised in Indiana, their parents do not have legal status. Martha, who has an expired visa, was sent to the ICE facility in west suburban Broadview, but has since been sent to a facility in El Paso, Texas. Rosario, who is undocumented, is being held by Hammond police in Indiana.

Arnoldo Carrillo said his parents did not have past criminal arrests.

The Carrillo family now faces four separate court cases related to the arrest, and are trying to raise the money to cover the legal fees.

ICE, the Marshals Service and and the U.S. Border Patrol did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Sun-Times staff

Traumatized and afraid for the future

The entire Carrillo family was taken to the Gary Police Department, and was separated soon after their arrests.

Hours went by before Arnoldo was told he could leave. His sister was sent to the Porter County Jail on allegations of interfering and being aggressive toward agents before being released. Their brother was sent to the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center in Crown Point, Indiana, for allegedly being aggressive with agents who feared the teen was going to grab a weapon.

“Supposedly he was going to grab a gun,” Arnoldo said, adding that the family has no guns in the home.

Sarai Carrillo said it was painful to see her family in handcuffs and separated from one another, and the experience left her traumatized and fearful about her family’s future. But she’s grateful for the support her family has received so far.

“Christian, Catholics, people from different cultural backgrounds, are coming together and supporting us, and it’s beautiful to see how much support and how much of a legacy my mom and dad have left for us in support of what’s going on,” Carrillo said.

Rosario and Martha Carrillo, both from Mexico, settled in Northwest Indiana after meeting in a church in California. Martha, 56, is a homemaker and Rosario, who has lived in the States for about 30 years, is self-employed and builds fences for residents and businesses in the area.

Rosario, 53, had recently come into contact with federal immigration agents when he was dropping his 14-year-old son off at school two weeks ago.

“Suddenly, a couple of ICE agent vehicles crashed into the front and back of his car,” Arnoldo said. “My dad, being scared of what was going on, decided to just flee the scene.”

According to a statement by the city of Gary, Gary police were notified about an incident between Rosario and ICE on Oct. 13.

The city of Gary is investigating if one of its police officers tipped off Homeland Security and ICE about Rosario’s immigration status.

Even though the incident left him afraid to go out, Arnoldo said his father continued to work to provide for his family.

Arnoldo described his dad as “very loving, very quiet and minds his own business.” Martha Carrillo is “even calmer and even more loving and would not hurt anybody,” he said.

Sun-Times staff

The Carrillo family started a GoFundMe page to help pay for legal expenses. “The costs of hiring four separate lawyers to represent each family member are more than we can handle alone,” the fundraiser page reads.

Arnoldo said he wants no family to experience the pain of what happened to them.

“I don’t want anybody that is a U.S. citizen, that are first-generation children that have parents that are immigrants to go through this,” Arnoldo said.

Arnoldo said his parents feared this day would come, but told their children to “be at peace with it” if ICE agents took them away.

“If the process is quick and speedy, and they just deport them, we do have family in Mexico that are also very loving and ready to receive them with open arms, and we will be at peace with it as well,” Arnoldo said.

Michael Puente is a reporter and weekend anchor at WBEZ. Reach him at mpuente@wbez.org or @mikepuentnews.bsky.social.