A 28-year-old Ecuadorian father who was arrested by federal immigration agents in Danbury, Connecticut, moments after seeing his young child off to school, has provided a firsthand account of the apprehension in a newly filed sworn federal court affidavit.
Leonel Morocho Arteaga submitted the detailed statement as part of an amended petition filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. In the filing, the father of two is asking a federal judge to prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining him again and to order the removal of a GPS ankle monitoring device that officers affixed to him following his same-day release from custody.
According to the affidavit, the incident occurred on the morning of Aug. 26, marking the third day of a broader four-day regional enforcement operation conducted by federal immigration authorities across Connecticut. Morocho Arteaga recounted that as he left his home that morning, he immediately noticed three black vehicles with dark tinted windows idling in his neighborhood.
At the time, he did not suspect that the unmarked vehicles were monitoring his movements. Morocho Arteaga explained in his court statement that he had an active legal appeal pending regarding his denied asylum claim, leading him to believe the vehicles were likely stationed in the area to apprehend someone else.
His assumption changed drastically after he walked his 6-year-old son to the morning school bus. Once the child safely boarded and Morocho Arteaga returned to his own parked automobile, the three black vehicles moved in rapidly and completely blocked his car from moving.
In the sworn statement, Morocho Arteaga described the abrupt moments that followed, noting that the officers approached his vehicle and asked him to confirm his identity. Although the armed officers had the letters "ICE" printed on their uniforms, they never verbally clarified to him whether they were local police officers or federal immigration agents.
After the officers verified his name, an agent reached inside the vehicle, opened the driver's side door, and grabbed Morocho Arteaga by his shirt. Facing the sudden physical confrontation, Morocho Arteaga stated that he spoke directly to an officer who knew Spanish, urging the agent to stay calm and assuring them that he would surrender and accompany them peacefully.
The apprehension in Danbury was not an isolated event; it was among 118 arrests carried out across the state during the intensive four-day ICE operation in late August. However, the circumstances surrounding Morocho Arteaga’s detention quickly sparked intense public backlash and captured national attention.
Elected Democratic leaders at both the state and federal levels voiced sharp criticism of the operation, pointing to the Danbury incident as an alarming instance of federal immigration authorities carrying out arrests in immediate proximity to a children's school bus stop.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not return requests for comment regarding the newly filed court affidavit. However, DHS had previously issued a staunch denial regarding the location of the arrest, asserting that any claim that agents targeted parents at a school bus stop was entirely false and maintaining that the vehicle stop occurred away from the bus stop vicinity while Morocho Arteaga was by himself.
Despite the federal government's assertions, video evidence obtained from the Danbury Public Schools appears to challenge parts of the official narrative. The footage, recorded by external cameras installed on a district school bus and released under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows federal agents conducting the stop just as the morning routine concluded.
In the recorded footage, children wearing backpacks can be seen waiting in an adjacent church parking lot alongside several adults before boarding the bus. A silver vehicle is shown moving past the bus toward the intersection of Second Avenue and Rowan Street, where dark vehicles with flashing red and blue emergency lights box in another car just across the intersection as the bus doors were closing.
Under Connecticut's Trust Act, federal immigration officials are prohibited from entering school grounds without specific legal authorization. However, federal authorities retain the legal power to conduct enforcement actions on public thoroughfares and in public spaces near bus stops, even though such public apprehensions frequently face severe community and political pushback.
Federal records indicate that Morocho Arteaga previously entered the United States without inspection, an infraction categorized as a federal misdemeanor, and was subsequently released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
His legal proceedings progressed to an immigration court in Hartford, where a judge denied his application for asylum and issued an order for his removal in November 2024. Morocho Arteaga quickly challenged the ruling, filing an appeal later that same month that remains unresolved and under active review.
His legal counsel, Mary Foden of the Hartford law firm De Castro Foden LLC, described the detention of a parent immediately following his child's departure for school as an action that shocks the conscience. In legal filings, Foden emphasized that the defense will vigorously pursue and defend Morocho Arteaga’s rights as his federal petition seeks lasting relief from electronic monitoring and further detention while his appeal proceeds.
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