ICE illegally used information from group chat to arrest University of Utah student, police say

MESA COUNTY, Colorado (ABC4) — Mesa County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage from the traffic stop of Caroline Dias Goncalves on June 5 that led to her detainment by ICE. Police stated that ICE used information from a multi-agency communication group without the knowledge of Mesa County Sheriff’s Office and against Colorado law in order to detain her.

Goncalves, 19, is a student at the University of Utah, and she was pulled over by officers with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office while she was traveling to Denver, Colorado.

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, she was stopped on Interstate 70 outside of Loma, Colorado. In the body camera footage, the officer said that he stopped her for following too closely behind a semi-truck. The stop lasted for less than 20 minutes, and she was released with a warning.

“In accordance with Colorado law, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office does not investigate residency status during any law enforcement interactions,” police stated in a news release.

In the body camera footage, the officer can be heard asking Goncalves, “Where are you from? You got a little bit of an accent.” She responded that she’s from Utah and that she’s lived there for 12 years. He then asked where she was born, and she replied that she was born in Brazil.

The deputy who performed the traffic stop was part of a multi-agency law enforcement communication group for a “multi-agency drug interdiction effort focusing on the highways throughout Western Colorado.”

The Sheriff’s Office stated that they were unaware that the communication group was used for anything other than stopping drug trafficking, but they have learned through their administrative investigation that federal representatives within the group were using material from the group for the purpose of ICE enforcement.

“This use of information is contradictory to Colorado law and was initially intended for the purpose of reducing illegal drug trafficking in Colorado,” Mesa County Sheriff’s Office stated. “Unfortunately, it resulted in the later contact between ICE and Miss Dias Goncalves.”

All Mesa County Sheriff’s Office members have since been removed from the communication group, according to the news release. They will continue efforts to stop drug trafficking with federal and state partners “within Colorado law.”

Loved ones of Caroline Dias Goncalves have organized a GoFundMe campaign in order to fund her legal fees.