Deputy checks woman’s immigration status during arrest for having dog on beach

By Justin Schecker

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    VOLUSIA COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — A Volusia sheriff’s deputy checked the immigration status of a Colombian woman last Saturday in New Smyrna Beach before arresting her for having a dog on the beach in violation of a county ordinance.

“The edict is out there, and you have no other choice,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. “We’re not the bad guys. We’re just doing our job.”

According to the arresting deputy’s narrative of what happened, “Deputies contacted ICE and they advised they would place a detainer on Angie Sandoval-Padro at VCBJ, advising she was in the United States illegally and would be under removal proceedings.”

“So, she’s under arrest for a dog on the beach,” the deputy can be heard telling Sandoval-Padro on his body-worn camera video. “ICE said she has to be deported, so she has to come with me.”

The body camera video obtained by WESH 2 shows another woman translated in Spanish for Sandoval-Padro and the man she was with on the beach.

“She’s sad because the kids and he said, if you can take him, but not her,” the translator told the deputy.

During the video, the deputy is also heard saying, “I’d much rather put drug dealers in jail, but I have no choice.”

“It’s a sad situation, but you know what? We have to enforce the law,” Chitwood said. “We don’t make the law.”

Under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and directives from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Chitwood said his deputy had to contact ICE, even for a non-violent violation.

“We’ve had people drinking a beer on the beach. It’s an open container. You got to go through the investigation,” Chitwood said. “You can’t issue a ticket if you don’t know who you’re issuing the ticket to.”

“Sir, how can you do that without raising concerns about racial profiling?” WESH 2 asked Chitwood.

“That wasn’t racial profiling,” he said. “We have arrested people. You people want to make an issue. I want to tell you that right now.”

Chitwood went on to say, “That’s (expletive) and we’re not going to wear that label.”

Court records show Sandoval-Padro was able to post her $1,000 bond and be released from jail.

Chitwood explained this isn’t the first time ICE advised his deputies they’d issue a detainer but then didn’t follow through.

“ICE has 24 hours to drop a detainer on them,” he said. “If they don’t drop the detainer, even though you told us that, the person is released. So, ICE doesn’t come back and explain to us why they didn’t file a detainer.”

ICE has not responded to WESH 2’s request for an explanation why they didn’t place a detainer on Sandoval-Padro.

The sheriff said law enforcement agencies are caught in the middle, where in his words, “One party wants to wave everybody through the door and the other wants to throw everybody out of the country.”

“Every four years, the ebb and flow switches,” Chitwood said, “and the poor, the poor bastards in the middle are the people in law enforcement trying to say, can we have a little consistency here? How are we going to do this?”

Chitwood said he’s encouraging immigrants without legal status in his county to self-deport.

“Why put yourself and your family through that, that drama?” he said.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office provided records showing between June 1 through July 18, deputies made 17 arrests of people for violating the no-animals on the beach county ordinance.

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