A viral video that shows a man begging to stay in jail instead of being deported back to Honduras has been deported five times and has a felony drug conviction on his record, according to a review of court records by 9Wants to Know.
The video, shared by a Facebook page called Now This Politics, racked up more than three million views in less than 24 hours.
The video was recorded on Facebook Live by a local activist with the Denver Justice Project.
It shows Kevin Avila-Gonzalez, 25, being arrested by ICE agents as he’s released from the Arapahoe County Detention Center on June 15. This all occurred in the lobby of the jail.
“I can’t go, the gangs are going to kill me,” Avila-Gonzalez says on video as ICE agents attempt to place him in handcuffs. “Better in jail,” he continues to say as agents struggle to get him in handcuffs.
A background check shows Avila-Gonzalez was convicted in Denver for felony drug distribution in 2015.
Recently, he was arrested by Thornton police on June 12 for failing to appear on traffic violations and transferred to Arapahoe County with an immigration detainer on his case.
According to an ICE spokesperson, Avila-Gonzalez has been deported five times since 2011.
“After having carefully reviewed the video of the arrest of Avila-Gonzales, it is clearly evident that our ICE federal officers acted extremely professionally to make this lawful arrest of a five-time-deported criminal alien, even though he physically and actively resisted arrest. I'm proud of my officers — though not surprised — that they acted so professionally despite Avila-Gonzales's provocation to violence,” ICE Denver Field Office Director Jeffrey Lynch said in a statement.
A spokesperson for the Arapahoe County Detention Center said it’s standard practice for the facility to notify ICE by email when an inmate who has an immigration detainer will be released.
