The man and his wife had stopped at a gas station where he was detained. A man driving his pregnant wife to a hospital for delivery of their baby was detained and taken into custody by immigration agents, according to the couple's lawyer and a news report. Joel Arrona-Lara, 36, was taken into custody when he and his wife stopped at a gas station Wednesday in San Bernardino, California, his wife, Maria del Carmen Venegas, told Univision in Spanish. They had been on the way to the hospital for a scheduled C-section. ICE said in an initial statement Saturday that Arrona-Lara is an undocumented immigrant now in custody pending removal proceedings. Later, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency issued an updated statement saying he is wanted in Mexico on homicide charges. "Mr. Arrona-Lara was brought to ICE’s attention due to an outstanding warrant issued for his arrest in Mexico on homicide charges," the agency statement said. Arrona-Lara’s legal defense team told ABC News the allegations of a warrant in Mexico are unconfirmed and that they will seek bail for him as he has no criminal record in the U.S. "Mr. Arrona denies any criminal history in Mexico and he is unaware of any criminal proceedings in Mexico in which he is named as a defendant," the legal team said in a statement. "The family denies allegations as well. In the charging documents he is charged with being in the country without documents. He is not in extradition proceedings." His wife said the detention of her husband at the service station came as a shock. “[I asked], 'Why are you taking my husband?' and they said somebody had reported us. And I said, 'No, how is that possible?' I said we are hard workers,” Carmen Venegas told Univision in an interview after the birth of her child. “It is very hard because he was always there," the mother said. "And he would say everything will be OK and not to worry, that we will meet the baby. And for me to be alone it feels brutal." In addition to the newborn, the couple has four children between the ages of 2 and 13 years old. Prior to the updated statement from ICE on Saturday evening, attorney Emilio Amaya, speaking on behalf of the couple, told ABC News that Arrona-Lara was detained for not having identification on him. According to Amaya, witnesses at the gas station said ICE agents were there when Arrona-Lara's car pulled up and that the agents seemed to approach the family randomly. ICE said in its statement, “Mr. Arrona-Lara, a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States, was taken into custody Wednesday by ICE Fugitive Operations Team officers in San Bernardino, Calif. Mr. Arrona-Lara is currently in ICE custody pending removal proceedings with the Executive Office for Immigration Review." The agency added that while it focuses on individuals who pose a threat to national security or public safety, it will no longer exempt other classes of removable immigrants from potential enforcement. "ICE continues to focus its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security," the ICE statement said. "ICE conducts targeted immigration enforcement in compliance with federal law and agency policy. However, ICE will no longer exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of the immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States.” ABC News' Matthew Fuhrman and Frank Elaridi contributed to this report.<doc-sep>A man was driving his pregnant wife to a scheduled cesarean section on Wednesday when immigration officials arrested him — leaving her to drive herself to a hospital and have the baby on her own, according to the woman and the family’s legal representative. The couple had pulled into a gas station in San Bernardino, Calif., on their way to deliver their child. While they were there, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers came to their car window and asked for identification, said the woman, Maria del Carmen Venegas. Her husband, Joel Arrona-Lara, 35, did not have his driver’s license with him, and officers arrested him, she said. The arrest quickly provoked outrage and fed into a growing anger toward ICE and the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration policies, which have expanded who is considered a priority for officers to arrest. In recent months, immigrants have been arrested while delivering a pizza or watering the lawn.<doc-sep>(CNN) Joel Arrona was heading to a San Bernardino, California, hospital with his pregnant wife for a planned cesarean section when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained him, forcing his wife to complete the journey and deliver the baby without him. Arrona, 35, is "a citizen of Mexico illegally residing in the United States" and has an outstanding warrant for homicide charges in Mexico, ICE said in a statement. His wife, Maria del Carmen Venegas, 32, says the charges are "a misunderstanding" in Mexico. His detention took place Wednesday, when Arrona was driving to the 10 a.m. appointment and decided to stop for gas. In an interview with CNN on Saturday, Venegas said people who "looked like security" knocked on her window. "I never imagined they were from ICE," Venegas said, adding that the officers didn't identify themselves as ICE and that she was unaware of their presence before they came knocking. Read More<doc-sep>Haley declined to say whether the arresting agents considered delaying Arrona-Lara’s arrest until after the birth or could have escorted Venegas to the hospital, given her condition. She also declined to provide any regulations either allowing or prohibiting such agent-level decisions.<doc-sep>
"He had to wait for his son for so long, and someone just took him away," she said. CBS LA / Via losangeles.cbslocal.com A 36-year-old man driving his pregnant wife to a Southern California hospital for a scheduled cesarean section was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Wednesday when the pair stopped for gas. Maria del Carmen Venegas told Telemundo that her husband, Joel Arrona Lara, was driving her to the hospital for the birth of their fifth child, when multiple SUVs driven by ICE officers surrounded their vehicle as they pulled into a gas station near their San Bernardino, California, home. The officers asked the two for identification, and she provided hers. Her husband, she said, had lost his. Arrona Lara is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico who came to the US 12 years ago. "I told him we had copies at home, and that they could come with us. We were only three blocks away. They didn't accept that, and asked Joel to get out of the car," Venegas told Telemundo. CBS LA Her husband got out of the car and they checked him for weapons. "At first, we were calm and we thought there was a mistake. My husband does not have a bad record and does not drink. There was no reason to detain him," she said. But officers detained him and gave his wife a card, which had an ICE logo and a phone number on it, saying she could call for further information, before driving away with Arrona Lara. "I realized that immigration had taken my husband," said Venegas, who had preeclampsia, a potentially life-threatening pregnancy condition. Security footage, aired on KCBS-TV, shows Arrona Lara getting out of his car and being detained by ICE officers. Venegas is then seen crying while using a phone shortly after they drive her husband away. She said she was "destroyed, very upset. I could not stop crying." CBS LA / Via losangeles.cbslocal.com