He Called 911 to Check on His Sick Daughter — Then ICE Took Him Away

A South Florida man who called 911 to request a welfare check on his sick 4-year-old daughter, whom he shares custody of with his ex-partner, was instead detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

In December 2025, Axel Sanchez Toledo asked the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to check on his daughter after learning she was ill.

According to court documents reviewed by The Marshall Project, when deputies arrived, they allegedly took his driver’s license and disappeared into a patrol car. One deputy later accused Sanchez Toledo of being undocumented shortly before arresting him.

Sanchez Toledo reportedly pleaded with officers that he had legal documentation, while his girlfriend stood nearby carrying their infant son. He then ran, prompting two deputies to chase him.

He was allegedly Tasered, kicked, and tackled as his girlfriend begged deputies to stop. “Please, guys, I’m not a criminal,” Sanchez Toledo screamed. “I don’t want to go.”

“Too f-cking bad now!” one deputy yelled back. “He just wanted to know about his daughter,” his girlfriend cried. “Why would you guys do this?”

Sanchez Toledo’s attorney later said he had a pending asylum case.

The deputy who arrested Sanchez Toledo was part of the sheriff’s office’s 287(g) Task Force, an arrangement with ICE that allows local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration law.

Sanchez Toledo was charged with resisting arrest.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that he was now subject to deportation proceedings, adding that “illegal aliens are not welcome in the United States.”

Body camera footage showed Sanchez Toledo complaining about pain from the handcuffs, while the deputy who arrested him insisted on restraining him with a second set of cuffs.

As Sanchez Toledo was being placed into an ambulance for his injuries, the deputy grabbed his dusty brown cowboy boots and held them up in the air. “Not running now,” the deputy screamed.

The officer then opened the door of a nearby car, where Sanchez Toledo’s girlfriend sat crying in the driver’s seat. “You better go, or you’re going to get arrested. Time for you to leave. He’s going back to Honduras,” the deputy said before slamming the door shut.

Sanchez Toledo spent four months in the Palm Beach County jail awaiting trial on a resisting arrest charge. On April 29, prosecutors agreed to drop the case if he wrote a letter apologizing to the deputy who arrested him. He complied.

“I’m really sorry for what happened to put you in a complicated situation,” wrote his lawyer, Isai Bonilla, translating Spanish dictation from Sanchez Toledo. “In that moment, I was scared to be separated from my kids. I did not know how to handle the situation — as I never been through this before. I respected the law and order of the police.”

Prosecutors then dismissed the charge, but Sanchez Toledo remained in the Palm Beach County jail. On May 1, ICE agents took him into custody, and he now remains in immigration detention while facing possible deportation. He has not spoken with his daughter since December.

Bonilla said the ordeal has completely changed how Sanchez Toledo and his family view law enforcement. “They reached out for help, and the complete opposite happened,” Bonilla said. “They’re traumatized by it all.”