Wife speaks out after ICE detains husband just before baby's birth

TUDIO CITY, Calif. — The wife and lawyer of the man whose arrest by immigration agents last week made headlines around the country say the whole ordeal might have been caused by a case of mistaken identity, CBS Los Angeles reports. Security video obtained by CBS Los Angeles last week shows officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detaining Joel Arrona-Lara at a San Bernardino gas station while he was driving his wife to a scheduled Cesarean section.

The footage shows Maria del Carmen Venegas visibly upset after the arrest inside the gas station's convenience store.

Just after she had delivered her baby boy, Venegas told CBS Los Angeles that her husband had never been in trouble with the law, not having even received a ticket. On Friday, ICE issued a statement saying Arrona-Lara was arrested for "illegally residing in the United States" by the agency's "Fugitive Operations Team" and was awaiting removal.

"I feel very bad right now," Venegas told CBS Los Angeles in Spanish at the hospital as she held her baby boy. "My husband needs to be here. He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away."

On Saturday, ICE said Arrona-Lara had, in fact, been targeted because he is wanted on an outstanding homicide warrant in Mexico, a detail that was not included in the original statement.

His attorney told CBS Los Angeles he is not aware of any such warrant and has been unable to confirm it from the Mexican consulate.

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