The ‘mistake’ behind a Helena immigration arrest

On Tuesday, Christopher Martinez Marvan was on his way home during his lunch break. The 31-year-old citizen of Mexico had lived in Helena on and off since 2008, when his parents first brought him into the United States under unknown circumstances. His family had since expanded to include a wife and four children, whom he had been supporting with his wages from hotel maintenance work. 

Also on Tuesday, officers from the Helena Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations were trying to arrest a different man — Anderson DeJesus Bastidas Linares — subject to an active criminal warrant. When law enforcement saw Martinez Marvan driving in the area they were targeting, HPD followed him. Officers determined that his vehicle registration had expired and pulled him over.

Speaking to local reporters and residents later that day, Helena Police Chief Brett Petty and Lieutenant Adam Shanks said police officers soon realized Martinez Marvan was not the man they were looking for. They said they planned to write him a citation for the traffic violation and let him leave. Instead, the situation escalated.

“Border Patrol and HSI federal officers advised that the male that we had pulled over actually had a federal detainer, and they were going to take custody of him,” Shanks said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, did not provide answers to Montana Free Press questions emailed Wednesday about Martinez Marvan’s immigration status, criminal history or lack thereof, or current whereabouts, but provided a short statement in response to his detention. 

“ICE is focused on public safety and national security threats first and foremost. However, any individual illegally present in the United States who is encountered during an immigration enforcement operation may be taken into custody and processed for removal as stated by law,” the agency said. 

The traffic stop took place on one of Helena’s busiest streets. Witnesses driving by texted friends. One message, later shared with MTFP, described a “brown man being taken by people in vests to a brown vehicle” bearing no obvious law enforcement logos or identification. Concerned locals soon found out that Martinez Marvan had been taken to the Lewis and Clark County Detention Center near downtown Helena, despite the county not having an agreement with federal authorities to hold detained immigrants. 

As word spread, some Helena residents appealed to local attorneys for help. Others got in touch with Martinez Marvan’s wife and learned that he is a father of four young children. Community members gathered that he did not appear to have a criminal record or be a known threat to community safety. A small gaggle of people showed up on Tuesday outside the county detention center to demand information from officials and call for Martinez Marvan’s release. 

Before long, Helena Mayor Wilmot Collins had met with the city police department’s top brass to try to smooth over community concerns. Upon leaving law enforcement offices at the downtown Law and Justice Center that afternoon, Collins addressed the group outside and confirmed that HPD had pulled over the wrong person. 

“You know, it’s sad. It’s someone with a family. But what do you do?” Collins told MTFP. “Times have changed.”

Accounts of immigrant detentions, many of them high-profile, have surged across the U.S. since President Donald Trump took office earlier this year. Trump promised to launch “the largest deportation effort in American history,” in part by targeting violent criminal offenders. But national data and analyses show the administration is falling short of its stated removal goals, and increasingly arresting people with no criminal history. 

Montana, with roughly 1.1 million residents, has seen far fewer detentions and deportations than other states. And recent arrests carried out by federal authorities have received less community blowback. In late June, a regional HSI office announced on X that federal authorities in Helena had arrested Erick Sanchez-Banegas, whom they identified as an illegal immigrant from Honduras. Also in June, federal agents in Kalispell reported arresting Baldermar Duarte-Nieto, a Mexican immigrant HSI said had a felony drug warrant in Washington state.

But the circumstances surrounding Martinez Marvan’s arrest struck a chord. Outraged local residents accused the Helena police department of racial profiling and demanded an investigation into how and why Lewis and Clark County officials collaborated with ICE. More than 30 people testified about the series of events at the Lewis and Clark County Commission meeting on Thursday, raising particular concern about detention center officials reportedly prohibiting Martinez Marvan’s attorneys from speaking with him before he was transferred out of the detention center Tuesday evening.

“It’s a big problem, right? Forget the type of proceeding we’re talking about here. Whether it’s immigration or criminal, people have a right to access their counsel. And Lewis and Clark County pretty clearly prevented that and has acknowledged that they did,” Andres Haladay, one of the attorneys representing Martinez Marvan, told MTFP. “It’s pretty upsetting.”

A hearing in Martinez Marvan’s case is scheduled for July 10 in federal district court in Missoula. Until then, his family, friends and attorneys say they intend to keep advocating for legal due process. None of his supporters had spoken to him as of Thursday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters shortly after his arrest, Martinez Marvan’s wife, Maria Pacheco, described her husband as a good father striving to take care of his family.

“He doesn’t have any warrants out there for him. Everything that he has done, like a small ticket that we have gotten, he always pays everything. He makes sure that we’re not in debt,” Pacheco said. “I don’t think it’s fair for what happened right now.”

Pacheco, a U.S. citizen, said Martinez Marvan had previously applied for citizenship but had been denied, describing the situation as “complicated.” She said the family has since considered moving to Mexico, but decided against it out of concern for the safety of their three daughters, the oldest of whom is 11 years old. 

In the weeks leading up to her husband’s arrest, Pacheco said, the family had been afraid to go out in public more than absolutely necessary. They decided to take the kids to the lake on Monday and got pulled over for allegedly speeding, Pacheco said. That time, they were let off with a citation. She said it hurts to know that Martinez Marvan’s second encounter with police this week was “a mistake.”

“It’s something really scary, because you think that you’re fine, you think everything is going to be OK, and it’s not,” she said on Tuesday, as her one-year-old baby cried and squirmed in her arms. “Everybody’s scared. That’s not fair.”