Immigration

Argentine acrobats with pending asylum cases detained by ICE at Phoenix airport

Phoenix, Arizona • November 14, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

ICE officers in vests marked Police ICE inside an airport terminal

File photo: Phoenix New Times — ICE officers at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport

Two Argentine acrobats who have lived in the United States since 2020 and have pending asylum applications and valid work permits were arrested by immigration agents at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, and both remain in federal detention a week later as they fight possible deportation.

Gustavo Eduardo Romanello and Agustin Baccega, a married couple who live in Florida, had just landed from Orlando on Saturday, Nov. 7, to attend the funeral of a friend and fellow circus performer who had died the day before. As they left Terminal 3, two plainclothes immigration officers approached them, according to the Arizona Republic and the Associated Press.

A family friend, Jonathan Batchelor, was on the phone with the couple when the officers stopped them. He told the AP he heard an officer ask if one of them was Agustin Baccega, then heard Romanello asking where they were taking his husband. When Romanello kept asking questions, the officers turned on him as well. "Oh, do you have another set of handcuffs? This is another one," Batchelor said he heard an officer say before the call went silent.

The two men entered the country legally on visas in 2020 — Romanello through Los Angeles on Oct. 30, 2020, and Baccega through Miami on Sept. 8, 2020 — and both applied for asylum, their attorney said. They have work permits issued by the U.S. government, state identification, and no criminal record, according to their lawyer and friends. Romanello worked full time as a performer at Universal Studios in Florida, and both men have taught aerial acrobatics at the Arizona Circus Center in Tempe.

"They were following the legal process that the U.S. government put in front of them. They have a valid work permit. They have state IDs," said Ray Ybarra Maldonado, the Phoenix immigration attorney handling their case. "There was really no reason to take them into custody. They remain applicants for asylum and they are here in this country with the knowledge of the U.S. government and a work permit issued by the U.S. government."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the men are not legally present. The agency said both overstayed their visas — Romanello was authorized to remain until April 2021 and Baccega until March 2021 — and that they were swept up as part of a "targeted enforcement action." The Department of Homeland Security said the two refused an order to depart in 2021.

In a statement from its Phoenix field office, ICE said a work permit or a pending application does not prevent enforcement action. "Employment authorization, commonly referred to as a work permit, or a pending application does not confer immigration status or prevent ICE from taking enforcement action, including arrest or removal proceedings," the agency said. "As a result, Romanello and Baccega will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings."

The men are being held in ICE detention facilities in Florence and Eloy, Arizona, according to the Arizona Mirror. Their attorney met with them on Nov. 10 and is seeking custody redetermination hearings. Supporters have raised more than $52,000 through an online fundraiser to help with their legal fight, and friends say members of Arizona's congressional delegation, including Sen. Ruben Gallego and Reps. Yassamin Ansari and Greg Stanton, have pressed federal officials about the case.

Ansari called the arrests "the cruel reality of the Trump administration" and said she has "serious questions about how ICE is flagging passengers as we head into the holiday season." She and Rep. Adelita Grijalva are co-sponsors of a bill introduced this summer that would block data sharing between the Transportation Security Administration and ICE.

The arrests come as immigration enforcement at airports is rising sharply. An analysis of federal data by the Arizona Mirror found that ICE made 21 arrests at Phoenix Sky Harbor through July of this year, compared with five in all of 2025 and none in the two years before that. The case is part of a broader pattern reported by the AP this week, in which people with pending asylum applications and work permits have been detained at airports, workplaces, and routine check-ins even as the administration's deportation drive continues after the midterm elections.

Sources: Arizona Republic, "Argentinian acrobats in Phoenix sought asylum, may get deported" (Nov. 14, 2026); The Associated Press, "Immigration arrests go on unabated despite Trump's misgivings after the GOP's midterm wipeout" (Nov. 12, 2026); Arizona Mirror, "Two circus performers with pending asylum cases were swept up by ICE at Sky Harbor" (Nov. 13, 2026).