Arnoldo Carrillo and his sister Sarai said they were sleeping in from a church retreat that weekend when their father, Rosario Carrillo Lopez, took their 14-year-old brother to school on Oct. 13 at Gary Lighthouse Charter School.
Court records show immigration agents were staking out their house and started tailing their father on the way to school. As he headed back, they tried to arrest him.
U.S. Homeland Security agents said in sworn court filings that their father hit one of their vehicles trying to escape. His children say that is not true — that agents hit his mini GMC SUV trying to force him off the road to apprehend him.
His front driver’s side and back passenger’s side lights were damaged.
“They came without warning,” Arnoldo, 26, said of the crash, on Clark Road between 5th and 6th Avenues. “He didn’t see them at all.”
Carrillo Lopez, 53, of Gary, who owns his own fencing company, drove over a curb and was able to evade agents that day. When he got home, Arnoldo saw him breathing heavily and afraid.
“The poor man was in sandals,” he said. “He was trying to get home peacefully.”
Days later, immigration agents raided their Gary home at around 6 a.m. Oct. 23.
Both siblings, U.S. citizens, said when they asked for a warrant, agents showed them a folded-up piece of paper and didn’t give them a document to examine until the family was handcuffed outside.
Their father is being held at the Hammond City Jail. Their mother, Martha, who was arrested while hiding in a basement closet and who spent thousands trying to renew an expired visa, is in an ICE detention facility in El Paso, Texas. Their 14-year-old brother, who is a U.S. citizen, is also still being held in Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, his family says.
The raid itself left Arnoldo with a visible black eye, a sore neck and chest, scratches and bruises after he said agents punched and choked him, while ripping his shirt open, he said. They arrested the father, who was hiding on the roof. His sister, Sarai, screamed that she was a diabetic and her blood sugar was affected by stress and anxiety.
Federal prosecutors charged Sarai, 24, Friday, alleging she pushed a federal agent with body armor. In an interview, she denied it, noting she is 5-foot-1. The man was “bigger than me” and was “pointing a gun.”
She believed it was retaliation for repeatedly asking for a warrant. A representative from ICE did not immediately respond to detailed questions.
Arnoldo contacted the Post-Tribune after reading an article on Friday after federal prosecutors in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District in Indiana charged his father — disputing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement narrative that his father hit their vehicles.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Morgan Swistek referred a reporter to the case file and declined to answer questions on various inconsistencies between the government and family’s accounts, citing the federal government shutdown.
Arnoldo said their mother, 56, who is also a diabetic, has lost vision in one eye from a recent stroke, and is losing sight in the other eye. Doctors limited her to only drive as needed in the daytime. She also has an injured shoulder — as she was trying to tell an agent in a cell phone video — which meant putting an arm behind her back was very painful.
They don’t know if she has medication in detention.
Federal agents allege the teen “interfered” with the arrest by grabbing the neck of a U.S. Marshal and trying to grab one agent’s gun. His family said that is not true.
The boy — who the Post-Tribune is not naming because he is a minor — is the treasurer on the Gary Lighthouse student council. He loves video games and hanging out with friends. He’s never even been suspended from school, let alone in trouble with the law, his family said.
He was a kid who was naturally apologetic and “probably thought it was his fault,” Arnoldo said.
His brother is charged with assault on an official, interference of an arrest and resisting arrest, he said.
After the raid, the teen had a bloodied bruise on the back of his head, Arnoldo said. They are hoping to gain guardianship to get him released in the next week or so.
A lawyer, Robert Lewis, confirmed he was just hired by the family to represent the teen in court. The boy’s court date is set for Nov. 7, but Lewis said he didn’t know anything else about the case. A representative from Gary Lighthouse did not immediately respond to questions, including what school officials are advising families who could get swept up in immigration raids.
The morning agents raided the home on Oct. 23, there were flashlights coming in the house and loud banging. Then, agents rammed the door open.
“I was already awake,” Arnoldo said. “I was just in shock, I didn’t know what to do.”
Both siblings later said agents did not provide identification or badge numbers. Arnoldo estimated there were at least eight agents involved. They “forcibly grabbed me and pulled me,” he said. “I really thought I was going to die in that moment. One punched me in the eye. I was not resisting at all.”
At the Gary Police station, Arnoldo was released several hours later, while his father was taken to Hammond, his sister to Porter County Jail and the brother to the county juvenile detention center in Crown Point.
“It’s hard,” he said. “I had my whole family in my house Thursday night. We all said good night to each other. Just in an instant, we were all separated.”
Back in 2008, their family seized an opportunity to buy a modest house near the Gary airport, he said. Despite the city’s reputation for violence, the area was calm and quiet. The neighbors on the block are close, he said.
Then, days before the raid, it raised their suspicions when they thought they observed people scouting the property and an unknown vehicle circling the block. His mom thought she saw a drone.
The Carrillos described their parents as hardworking, loving and giving. Sarai said she was her “dad’s favorite.” She recalled he gave her and her friends money to buy things at the gas station growing up, saying he was a “soft” and “shy” man.
Arnoldo said Monday he believed neither of their parents have a criminal record, and they have lived in the U.S. since moving from Mexico in the 1990s. They were looking for a “better life” and the “American dream.” His parents met in church in California.
Arnoldo said he only learned of his father’s “narcotics offense” mentioned in federal documents through a news article. After asking around, a relative said it was decades old, possibly before his parents met. His father long since did his time, he recalled the relative said.
In April, Carillo Lopez pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge of not possessing an operator’s license as part of plea agreement, stemming from a September 2024 traffic stop, according to Lake County court records.
Carrillo Lopez, for now, is worried about his employees and how his customers will get their work orders completed. He told his son to skip his court dates, worried that federal immigration agents could arrest him.
How Carrillo Lopez first got on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s radar is disputed.
Arnoldo said his father was working on a job site a few days before the Oct. 13 crash when a police officer approached him. He didn’t know which agency. His father provided his Mexican identification card.
“All he remembers is the officer saying ‘you could be arrested for it’,” Arnoldo said.
The police left. His father went back to work.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton’s Office spokesman Steve Segura said Chief Derrick Cannon checked and concluded city police did not contact ICE.
Officers “encountered the subject on a call for service, that turned out to not be a criminal matter,” he wrote in an email.
Police reports Segura provided late Wednesday showed someone called police on Oct. 10 reporting a “suspicious” white pickup and a man “putting up fencing” in the back of the former Beckman Junior High, 1430 W 23rd Ave., which closed in 2005.
Officers quickly reported they were “contractors.” The actual interaction, at 4:18 p.m., was over in five minutes.
“At this time, we are investigating if one of our personnel had contact with HSI/ICE, but my office has not had any official contact with HSI/ICE involving tipping off HSI/ICE for immigration matters,” Segura wrote on behalf of Gary Police.
In court filings, Homeland Security Special Agent Steven Moran wrote they “were contacted by the Gary Police Department…regarding (Carrillo Lopez) following a GPD encounter…in which (he) provided (officers) with a Mexican Consular Identification Card.”
Carrillo works as a U.S Ministry Project Coordinator for Bible League International. He is set to get married in July. His sister babysits and is taking general studies classes, looking into a possible healthcare career. Their brother, inspired by their father, hopes to be a welder.
As U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is scheduled to visit Gary Thursday, Arnoldo said he would tell her he doesn’t want his experience happening to another family. For now, they are grateful for the support from their church, local community and loved ones.
“We just want our little brother right now,” he said.
The family has raised over $23,000 in a fundraising campaign for their legal bills on the GoFundMe online platform. Representatives donated $5,000 on behalf of the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago.
“We forgive and would rather forget the whole scenario,” Sarai said.
