CHARLOTTE — A man from El Salvador was arrested by ICE in east Charlotte earlier this week in a targeted operation, the agency confirmed to Channel 9.
ICE arrested Ricardo Portillo Guzman on Wednesday. The arrest happened at the corner of Idlewild Road and Idlebrook Drive.
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According to ICE, his past criminal history includes felony selling amphetamine, felony carrying a prohibited weapon, felony carrying a concealed weapon, and animal conservation and cruelty.
ICE says Guzman illegally entered the United States in 1988 and later obtained a green card but “due to his criminal behavior, he was determined to be removable from the United States.”
Siembra NC held a news conference about the arrest on Friday. Guzman’s brother, Atilio Portillo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, says he was briefly detained but then released.
“I told them that I am a U.S. citizen and that I wanted to know why I was being stopped,” Portillo said. “They never told me who they were looking for.”
Portillo was driving Guzman at the time of the arrest. He says ICE agents broke his windows and pointed guns at him.
A spokesperson for ICE says, “Law enforcement officers are trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and our officers.”