Overview
- Surveillance footage from the Feb. 21 incident shows a person placing a propane tank, smashing a lobby window and using a torch to ignite interior window shades while an anti-ICE message was arranged in landscaping rocks.
- Federal authorities arrested Gabriel Mendoza-Acoltzi on May 7 and a federal grand jury returned an indictment announced May 20 charging him with malicious damage to federal property and willful depredation; he is detained pending further proceedings.
- According to court papers, Mendoza-Acoltzi waived his Miranda rights and allegedly told investigators he set the fire “out of protest” and wanted to stop DHS from “hurting his people.”
- Officials say ICE has paid more than $40,000 so far in repairs and has a total repair estimate exceeding $400,000, and documents allege the suspect planned to shut off the water main to disable sprinklers.
- The attack has added pressure on a DHS-owned warehouse that Arizona’s attorney general sued in April to block over placement and safety concerns, and federal officials say threats to immigration facilities have prompted heightened security and prosecutorial scrutiny.