Two Argentine acrobats landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport on a flight from Florida Saturday morning expecting to attend a friend’s funeral. Instead, Agustin Baccega and Gustavo Romanello were met by plainclothes agents and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before they could leave the terminal.
The arrest was first detailed by KJZZ, which reported the men arrived at Sky Harbor on Saturday morning on a flight from Florida. According to friend Jonathan Batchelor, two plainclothes men approached the acrobats right after they landed, and ICE agents told him they were arresting Baccega for being in the country illegally. When Batchelor followed the agents seeking information about Baccega, agents detained Romanello too, reportedly asking whether they had another pair of handcuffs for the second man.
Prensa Arizona reported that the pair had traveled to the Valley specifically to attend the funeral of a close friend who had died the night before, according to Prensa Arizona. The outlet also reported that Baccega and Romanello had performed in productions at Walt Disney World and at Universal, including Universal’s The Untrainable Dragon.
Visas, Asylum Claims and a Dispute Over Status
Batchelor told KJZZ the men came to the U.S. on visas and applied for asylum once they arrived, and said both men have valid work permits, pending immigration cases and no criminal record. The men had been based in Phoenix before moving to Orlando, Florida, to perform with theme parks, per Batchelor’s account relayed through the station’s reporting…