U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in San Antonio arrested a man said to be an undocumented immigrant after a roughly eight-hour standoff that unfolded on Tuesday in a backyard where he tried to evade arrest by climbing a tree.
The man, who immigration officials identified as Raul Ical, a 29-year-old from Guatemala, attracted a large crowd of residents and journalists.
“You don’t have to sign anything,” yelled Jose Montoya, an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a local advocacy group, as Mr. Ical climbed down a ladder that federal agents had placed in the backyard.
When Mr. Ical surrendered, looking defeated, he was quickly handcuffed by agents.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said the episode was part of the Trump administration’s efforts to combat illegal immigration.
“You can run, but you can’t hide,” she said in a statement. “Whether in a tree or harbored in an activist judge’s house, if you are here illegally, ICE will find you, arrest you and you will be deported.”
ICE said that deportation officers in San Antonio and state police tried to serve Mr. Ical what the agency described as a “criminal warrant” on Tuesday morning before he left his vehicle and fled on foot. He ran into a backyard and climbed a tree, where he remained for hours, the authorities said.
It was unclear Tuesday afternoon whether Mr. Ical had a prior criminal record or if he had legal representation.
News of the standoff spread around the west San Antonio neighborhood as agents tried to persuade Mr. Ical to climb down. Gabriel Rosales, the director of the Texas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said the treatment of the migrant appalled him when he arrived at the scene.
“This is something that concerns me,” Mr. Rosales said. “They are coming into our communities and coming after people that look like us.”
A man who lives nearby, Joel de la Roja, 61, said that the large police presence worried him.
“A lot of people in this neighborhood are from Mexico, and they are probably scared, too,” Mr. Roja said. “It seems a bit too much. One man does not need all of these officers after him.”
Chris Rodriguez, 38, said he had heard a helicopter roaring in his neighborhood at around 11 a.m. He followed its path on his bicycle.
“It’s a sad situation,” he said. “This is the first time I see something like this. If it’s something where he’s a danger to the community, then you understand it. But I think that if he’s just undocumented, that’s overkill.”
After more than eight hours on top of the tree, a woman who described herself as a relative of Mr. Ical stood next to Mr. Montoya and called Mr. Ical. He was seen answering it; Mr. Ical told her he had decided to give up.
He was loaded into a white truck and taken away as the crowd of local news media and residents recorded the scene on their phones.
“Treat him well,” one woman yelled. “Don’t sign anything. Don’t say anything.”
Hank Sanders contributed reporting.
