Texas Monthly’s taco editor has said that he was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in West Texas and questioned for “probable cause” while on assignment.
ICE operations have grown across the country as President Donald Trump carries out his campaign promise of the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in U.S. history. Public opinion of Trump’s deportation efforts has since soured as Americans grow more concerned about ICE’s tactics.
José Ralat is known for writing about Mexican food. He said he was on assignment reporting on Spanish missions for his magazine last week, when he and Rodrigo Bravo Jr., his friend and driver, were pulled over by ICE agents just north of Presidio.
The Independent has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE for comment about Ralat’s experience.
What appeared to be Latino agents in tactical gear started an “interrogation” of Rodrigo, as Ralat described it in a Texas Monthly article published Monday.
One agent asked him where he was going and what he was doing in Presidio, according to Ralat’s account.
Rodrigo explained that they were heading back to Marfa after going to a cemetery in Ochoa. The two had gone to visit the remains of a lost mission, which included the cemetery.
The agent asked why Rodrigo pulled off the road twice before getting stopped.
Rodrigo explained, “We pulled over once to see the cemetery where the marker is, then we pulled over a second time to take a picture of the other road sign. We literally pull over all the time to capture Texas historical markers.”
The agent continued to probe Rodrigo after he said he and Ralat were traveling to El Paso after Marfa. The agent asked where they were staying in El Paso, and Rodrgio said they were getting a hotel, explaining, “We are doing a story and eating tacos along the way.”
“We felt this wasn’t a simple query but rather questioning for probable cause,” Ralat wrote in his article.
After the two said they were on assignment for Texas Monthly, and Ralat gave the agent his business card, the agent demanded their IDs, according to Ralat.
The agent did not explain why he needed their IDs before they handed them over, Ralat said. Ralat and Rodrigo reportedly waited thirty minutes before the agent let them go with a warning, though Ralat was unsure what the warning was for.
“When the federal government’simmigration raids began at businesses and restaurants across Texas, I felt worried that I would eventually get caught up in one of them,” Ralat wrote in the article. “Even being a citizen with my identification always on me seems like it hardly matters. But I have a job to do.”
Ralat and Rodrigo were stopped two other times that day: once by a county officer as they were driving five mph over the speed limit and once by the Texas Department of Public Safety as they were going 71 mph in a 70 mph zone, according to Ralat’s story. Ralat said the DPS officer claimed they were going 77 mph.
“We were shaken, and angry at and afraid of what seemed like a coordinated effort between federal and state officials,” Ralat said in reflection.
