JESUS MANUEL ORONA PRIETO was downtown in Phoenix, Arizona, as demonstrators took to the streets on the night of May 30 decrying the police killings of George Floyd and other black people across the country. But he wasn’t protesting, according to his girlfriend, Corina Paez. They were on a date.
Twenty-six-year-old Orona Prieto was playing it safe, Paez said. Having fled death threats from a gang in his home state of Chihuahua, Mexico, he didn’t need any extra trouble. He rode in the passenger seat that night, as always, and took care to make sure seat belts were buckled and speed limits followed.
But that didn’t matter to Phoenix police, who swept Orona Prieto up in a wave of mass arrests that night and slapped him with felony rioting charges. Within 24 hours, he landed in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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