Venezuelan National Charged After Struggle With DHS Task Force Agent in Michigan

The Justice Department has filed a criminal complaint against 33-year-old Venezuelan national Arnoldo Jose Marquez-Pulido, accusing him of assaulting a federal officer and briefly seizing the officer’s Glock 19 service pistol during an arrest outside a business in Utica, Michigan, earlier this month. Homeland Security Task Force agents were surveilling the site after receiving information that undocumented workers were making deliveries there and determined that Marquez-Pulido, whose vehicle they observed leaving the lot, was in the country illegally. Prosecutors say he fled a traffic stop at high speed, returned to the business and ran on foot before an HSTF agent tackled him, at which point he allegedly elbowed the agent in the face, pulled the gun from the holster and briefly wielded it before officers regained control and recovered the weapon from the ground. Two agents suffered contusions and abrasions requiring hospital treatment and release, and prosecutors say they will seek to keep Marquez-Pulido detained pending further proceedings in federal court in Detroit. DOJ officials say he is believed to have entered the U.S. through the San Ysidro, California, port of entry in 2024 without a visa or valid travel documents, and the U.S. attorney framed the case as evidence of dangers faced by federal officers enforcing the Trump administration’s current, hard-line immigration agenda.