Handcuffed, head down, and seated in the back seat of a patrol car. This was the snapshot chosen by Donald Trump's ICE to announce on its social media the arrest of the Hispanic-Dominican Joel Carmona Roa. An arrest that took place on January 11 in the state of New Jersey, at the request of the Spanish National Police, who requested his arrest from the authorities after he was located on the other side of the Atlantic, where he had allegedly fled to avoid a trial for sexual assault on a minor in Madrid.
According to the statement released by US authorities, "Newark ICE arrested Joel Carmona Roa, an undocumented foreigner from the Dominican Republic and a Spanish citizen, wanted in Spain for sexual assault on a minor." The official statement adds that Carmona Roa "entered the United States on July 12, 2024, through the Visa Waiver Program, but did not leave the country when his stay authorization expired."
The arrest, according to that statement, took place "during a targeted operation". An action that contrasts with the bulk of ICE's high-profile raids, which use all kinds of tricks - such as posing as Uber drivers - to detain immigrants while they go about their daily lives.
With no social media or public records under his name, Carmona Roa's earliest trace in Madrid dates back to June 2016 when, during the popular festivities of the Villaverde district, he was pepper-sprayed and stabbed in the lung without warning.
Sources from the National Police explain that Joel Carmona Roa "fled Spain to avoid a trial that was supposed to have taken place last year." According to the same sources, he is accused of sexually abusing "a minor in Madrid with whom he had a romantic relationship."
"He took advantage of being much older than her to sexually abuse the young girl," say the Police. At the time of the incident, at the end of 2022, "he was 27 years old and she was only 15."
At some point, "probably when he found out he was reported," the accused left Spain, according to the Police. The trial for sexual abuse was scheduled for January 2025, but Carmona did not appear, officially confirming his escape. For at least the past year, he must have been living in the US since he was arrested in New Jersey, suspect the same police sources.
The Fugitive Location Group of the National Police is now coordinating "with the US Department of Homeland Security to process Joel's deportation." The Enforcement and Removal Operations intervened in his arrest, the operational branch of ICE responsible for locating, detaining, guarding, and expelling foreigners who are in irregular situations in the United States or who violate immigration laws. A body that, in turn, is part of Homeland Security itself and is responsible for carrying out administrative deportations for immigration issues.
Meanwhile, "the detainee will remain in the custody of US authorities in prison," explain sources from the National Police. According to GRAN MADRID, the detainee is interned at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, a private prison located in New Jersey and managed by CoreCivic, the largest private prison company in the US.
The conditions of this immigrant detention center have been described by organizations like Detention Watch Network as "inhumane". Their reports include complaints about "inadequate medical care", "insufficient ventilation," "proliferation of worms in showers or food," as well as "physical and verbal assaults" and "violation of religious rights by detained Muslims."