SAN JUAN — Puerto Rico’s municipal police officers are calling federal immigration enforcement on people after traffic stops or at court hearings, according to documents reviewed by The Latino Newsletter.
Nelfry Hernández-Valdez, a Dominican migrant, was driving through Isabela in September 2025 when he was stopped by officers from the Isabela Municipal Police Department (IMPD), according to a federal affidavit signed by Border Patrol agent Luis Polo.
When Hernández-Valdez gave the IMPD officer his license, the document says the officer called his supervisor because it had “markings not seen before by the officer.” Then, per the documents, the supervisor “contacted Border Patrol for assistance.” IMPD then “transported” Hernández-Valdez and an unknown number of passengers to an IMPD station, where they waited for a Border Patrol agent to arrive to perform immigration checks, according to court records. Afterward, Hernández-Valdez and his passengers were detained and transported to a Border Patrol station to begin removal proceedings, according to the affidavit.
Hernández-Valdez pleaded guilty to re-entry after being removed, court documents show. He had previously been deported after being convicted at the state level of attempted fraud, per the affidavit. The fate of his unnamed passengers — who were also detained — is not detailed in the court documents reviewed by The Latino Newsletter.
The affidavit does not say that Hernández-Valdez was identified before his vehicle was stopped.
The Isabela Municipal government referred The Latino Newsletter to IMPD inspector Juan Castillo, who did not respond to a request for comment.
Another Case
In another instance, court documents say that Joan Alberto Zorrilla-Lora, a Dominican migrant, was stopped by Carolina Municipal Police (CMP) officer Bahamundi Requena on January 8, 2026. During the stop, Zorrilla-Lora showed his provisional driver’s license, which has a “distinctive purple bar reserved for non-citizens,” according to a court memorandum and order signed by a district court judge, and Bahamundi Requena cited him to appear at the CMP station nearly a week later. When he arrived, he was detained by Border Patrol because “Border Patrol agents responded to a call from a Carolina Municipal Police Officer,” according to a court memorandum signed by the Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Muldrow.
“The fact that a person has one of these licenses, which says that they do not work for federal purposes or for traveling, should not be an excuse or incentive for police to contact federal authorities. This is not supposed to be happening. In fact, any police intervention, whether state or federal, is supposed to be free from immigration or racial motivations.” Fermín Arraiza, legal director of the ACLU of Puerto Rico (ACLU-PR), told The Latino Newsletter.
When questioned about the incident, Carolina’s security manager and CMP commissioner Rubén Moyeno claimed “the citizen voluntarily disclosed their immigration status, and the established protocol was followed” in a written statement. The CMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment about which protocol Moyeno was referring to.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), there are no official 287(g) agreements with Puerto Rico’s municipal and state police. These agreements deputize state and municipal law enforcement to perform immigration enforcement.
Arraiza explained that municipal and state police officers should not participate in immigration enforcement because it falls outside their official remit. He added that they could be held personally liable for violating a person’s civil rights.
“Our recommendation to all law enforcement officers in Puerto Rico, whether at the municipal or state level, is that they limit themselves to doing their job and not exceed the authority that has been given to them, which is their responsibility, and immigration work is not a job for state or municipal agents,” Arraiza said.
At the time he was detained, Zorrilla-Lora and his U.S. citizen wife were in the process of regularizing his immigration status, per court documents. The ACLU-PR is currently representing him in a habeas petition to prevent his transfer out of Puerto Rico.
Calling Federal Agents
Álvaro Núñez, an immigration lawyer, claims that officer Bahamundi Requena has called federal immigration officials on two of his clients while they were at the Carolina Municipal Courthouse last year.
“It’s not by chance. It’s his modus operandi. Any person who has Dominican traits and characteristics who says, in good faith, that they do not have a social security number, [Bahamundi Requena] activates immigration agents,” Núñez told the Latino Newsletter.
“When he has a hearing, he calls immigration agents to go there,” Núñez told The Latino Newsletter.
The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI) has previously reported that a CMP officer detained an immigrant victim of a traffic accident, then called federal immigration authorities, noting that the victim’s partner claimed that the CMP officer told her that his badge was on the line if he did not report the presence of an undocumented migrant.
The Latino Newsletter previously reported that federal immigration authorities have access to vehicle registration data, which they have used in immigration enforcement. It is known that the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTOP) shared data about migrants’ provisional licenses with ICE after receiving an “administrative subpoena.” The ACLU-PR sued DTOP to obtain the alleged subpoena, and an appeals court ruled that DTOP must release the document.
Detained in Cabo Rojo
On May 27, 2025, Aracelys Terrero Mota, a Dominican woman with deportation protections and a valid work authorization, went to Cabo Rojo municipal offices to receive orientation on the permits necessary for her ice cream business. While there, she was detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, who had been called by a Cabo Rojo Municipal (CRMP) police officer, according to Telemundo, which first reported the story.
However, the police report on the incident, obtained exclusively by The Latino Newsletter through a records request, provides new details.
An excerpt of a police report detailing Terrero Mota’s interaction with the CRMP.
Per the police report, Terrero Mota gave CRMP officer José Toro Segarra several identification documents, among them a “valid usa employment authorization,” that the Puerto Rico Police system “could not verify because there is no system.” The report noted that CBP agent Morales was made aware and verified the documents were “up to date so the system allows her to come,” according to the report. An epigraph added to the report says that he received a call from CBP agent Muñiz, the turn supervisor, who told him he would send agent Santiago to the Cabo Rojo municipal offices, and that “they [CBP] would take over jurisdiction in the case.”
“Her situation was the perfect storm, but really it was the first time we saw what has become a modus operandi,” Angel Robles, Terrero Mota’s lawyer, told The Latino Newsletter in 2025. He explained that several of his clients who are victims of crimes or domestic violence with deportation protections were put in the deportation process. Robles called the situation “scandalous.”
Terrero Mota had a valid work authorization and protection from deportation because of the Violence Against Women Act, but she spent about a month in immigration detention before she was released. She is continuing her journey to regularize her citizenship, according to Robles.
The report was signed by officer José Toro Segarra and supervisor sergeant Eric Martínez Acosta.
The CRMP did not respond to a request for comment. The Municipality of Cabo Rojo did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Other Incidents
In March of last year, the CRMP stopped a vehicle being driven by a US citizen that had three undocumented immigrants traveling in the back, according to court affidavits. Hours later, CBP agents “learned” that CRMP had encountered the three immigrants. The court documents do not describe why the vehicle was stopped, how the CRMP learned the passenger’s status, or how the information reached CBP. However, a plea agreement signed by one of the migrants appears to show they were identified only after the CRMP stopped the vehicle.
The stop occurred hours after the Puerto Rico Police marine unit notified CBP that it had spotted a vessel approaching a beach in the municipality, according to records. Two of three migrants encountered by CRMP in the March 2025 vehicle stop were the organizer and enforcer in charge of a vessel transporting 39 undocumented migrants from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico. When the vessel had motor troubles, the organizers left about 30 migrants on Mona Island without food or water. The three organizers were later indicted for smuggling migrants into the U.S., and the driver, a U.S. citizen, was indicted months later for transporting undocumented migrants.
CBP acknowledged a request for comment from The Latino Newsletter, but did not respond by press time.
Losing Trust
Arraiza of the ACLU-PR warned that continued collaboration between the municipal police and federal immigration officials could cause people to lose trust in municipal or state governments, causing them to be unwilling to come forward if they think they could be deported for reporting they witnessed a crime or that they are victims of one.
“When you don’t trust in the system of justice or the authorities, which should uphold law and order, what you are going to create is a system of chaos. And that’s what we are seeing in the streets,” Arraiza said.
Carlos Berríos Polanco is a journalist from Puerto Rico who covers climate, conflict, and their intersection. He is also the Deputy Editor of The Latino Newsletter’s San Juan Bureau.
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