FAIRFIELD, Ohio — A little over two weeks after Marlen Ortiz-Soto was taken into custody by law enforcement and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, we sat down with her boyfriend, Daniel Flores, who captured her detainment on video.
It's been 16 days since Flores has seen his girlfriend, and he told us he thinks about her all the time.
"I think about her every day, all day, like that's what's on my mind every day," he said.
WATCH: More from our exclusive one-on-one with Flores
Flores and Ortiz-Soto were driving from Indiana back to her home in Ohio when they were stopped by Fairfield police for what her defense attorney says was a traffic violation.
In newly released body camera footage shared with WCPO, a police officer questions Flores on where they came from and are heading. Flores said they left a gas station near Sabor Peruano, which is a club and restaurant that police say they ran "an operation" at that resulting in dozens of ICE arrests. Ortiz-Soto's attorney, Krishna Mehadevan, previously said she has no connection to the restaurant and club.
The officer then asks for their IDs, and after reviewing them with an ICE agent, they approach Ortiz-Soto and say they have probable cause that she's in the U.S. illegally. The officers then ask Ortiz-Soto to step out of the vehicle, and after she stays in it, multiple officers remove her and take her into custody.
You can watch that body camera footage below: (Viewer discretion is advised due to explicit language)
In Flores's own two-minute video of the traffic stop, he continually asks the officers to identify themselves. Flores' video shows another angle of Ortiz-Soto being grabbed out of the vehicle and taken into custody.
You can watch Flores' full video of the encounter below:
After Ortiz-Soto was detained, she was taken to a bank parking lot and further taken into custody by ICE, according to Mahadevan.
During the traffic stop, Flores said Ortiz-Soto was terrified and begged him not to let them take her.
"She was holding on to my hand, I was holding on to hers ... I tried to stop them," Flores said.
Flores himself was also charged with obstruction after the incident.
"He was like 'You know what, you're going to go to jail too,' and then they yanked me out of the car, they threw my phone on the ground and then they put me in the police vehicle," Flores said.
Flores was released from custody, but he said he has to appear in court Wednesday for the charge.
You can watch Fairfield police release Flores from custody in the video below:
The 24-year-old Honduran native is currently being held at the Butler County Jail on an ICE hold. She was in court Tuesday for a bond hearing.
Mahadevan said she and her family came to the U.S. back in 2019 and submitted their first asylum application in January 2020.
"The violence problem in Honduras like kept rising and rising," Flores said. "So that's why they decided to come here to the United States."
During her time in the U.S., Flores said Ortiz-Soto has her own cleaning business.
"She works every day, all day," he said. "She's a really hardworking woman."
Flores also said the two of them had already talked about marriage at some point in the future. Now that she's being held by ICE, he said they may decide to do that much quicker.
After Tuesday's bond hearing, Mahadevan said the government is trying to prevent Ortiz-Soto from receiving bond, saying the judge doesn't have jurisdiction to hear the case. He said that the argument is based on a recent U.S. Immigration Board of Appeals decision where anyone previously detained by ICE and released on parole is ineligible for bond and subject to mandatory detention. Ortiz-Soto and her family were in ICE custody back in 2019.
"Our counter-argument was to the contrary, saying she was never released with parole," Mahadevan said. "It was released on reconnaissance. The judge has jurisdiction to hear the bond proceedings."
Previously, a spokesperson for the Butler County Sheriff's Office said officers arrested five people in late August during a traffic enforcement operation in response to violence at a nearby club, Sabor Puruano.
Mahadevan said Ortiz-Soto has no connection to the restaurant and club.
A ruling on Ortiz-Soto's bond is expected to come within the next 24 hours.
