Ecuadorean man decries detention, second immigration arrest involving Ogden police officers

OGDEN — An immigrant from Ecuador is crying foul over his detention by federal immigration agents last month and the involvement of an Ogden police officer, who assisted as the ICE agents struggled with the man.

"It changed my life, 360 degrees," Dennys Alcivar Torres said, saying the incident took an economic toll and affected him emotionally and psychologically. "I'm afraid."

He addressed the Ogden City Council during the public comment portion of the body's Oct. 13 meeting and later spoke with KSL, charging that his detention amounted to a physical attack.

"I demand that this blow to my human rights and physical integrity be reviewed," he said at last week's meeting, addressing the body in Spanish. "I'm asking that the city implement a policy that the police department accepts police reports from anyone attacked by ICE officials."

Alcivar's detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials is the second local case that Weber County immigrant advocates have seized on in their push for a clearer Ogden Police Department policy outlining the role police officers may have in ICE actions. The department doesn't have a formal accord with ICE, unlike some other law enforcement agencies, but a police officer happened upon the Aug. 25 detention of Jonathan Paredes Rodriguez, originally from Venezuela, spurring the debate. Another officer helped with the Sept. 3 detention of Alcivar as a second Ogden officer looked on.

On both occasions, Ogden officers interacted with ICE officials and the respective men targeted by immigration authorities. Video of the Sept. 3 detention shows an officer assisting as two ICE agents were cuffing Alcivar on the ground of an Ogden parking lot, the man already largely under control. In the Aug. 25 incident, also on video, Paredes surrendered to an ICE agent after seeking assistance from the Ogden officer, there on an unrelated issue.

The video from an Ogden police officer's body camera shows the detention of Dennys Alcivar Torres in Ogden on Sept. 3. Two ICE agents were already subduing the man when the Ogden officer arrived.

Numerous immigrant advocates addressed the City Council on Sept. 1 in the wake of Paredes' detention, pressing the city to spell out what sort of interaction police may have with ICE agents. Kim Haslam, active in Ogden United, which has advocated for immigrants on the issue, said so far she hasn't heard any specifics, though officials say they are working on an updated plan.

"Many of us have asked repeatedly at every council meeting when the timeline is, and they have not told us," she said. The advocates have largely blasted the ICE crackdown on illegal immigration in Ogden and beyond as heavy-handed and targeted chiefly at immigrants who don't have major criminal records.

In a statement Monday, Ogden Police Capt. Matt Ward said authorities are mindful of Alcivar's comments from last week's City Council meeting, but not much more. Both Paredes and Alcivar were placed in immigrant detention facilities but have since been released, though their respective immigration cases remain unresolved.

"We are conducting a review of the incident. As we've stated in the past, we are looking at a policy for the department regarding interactions with ICE. Because we're actively reviewing the incident, we can't provide any further comment on the September 3rd interaction," Ward said.

'Vital signs were low'

Alcivar, who ran a marketing business in Ecuador and is trained as a lawyer, had plenty to say. He had been living in Kaysville before he was detained, but since his release from an immigrant detention center in California in early October, he has been finding lodging at varied locations, most recently at the Riverdale home of some friends.

He said he came to the United States from his home in Guayaquil, Ecuador, on a tourist visa and had been in the process of trying to secure a student visa to study English when agents detained him on Sept. 3. He had just left Ogden Justice Court, where he had a court date stemming from tickets he received in an Aug. 2 traffic case, one a class C misdemeanor for failing to keep a proper lookout for others while driving, the other for driving without a license, an infraction.

"I paid all the fees to be able to make the change in status, presented the documents and everything was going well," he said, referencing his request for a student visa. He maintains that U.S. law permits him to remain in the United States while his application for the student visa remains unresolved.

In a statement to KSL on Monday, though, the Department of Homeland Security offered another take.

"Alcivar Torres entered the United States legally on June 8, 2025, but violated our nation's laws by refusing to depart by the required date. His pending application was denied in September 2026 for abandonment, and he has no lawful status to remain in the United States," the department said.

As for the Sept. 3 detention, Alcivar said he was cooperative with the ICE agents as they descended on him to arrest him and that he asked them to look up his case. He was seated in a parked car, which was not turned on.

"I show him my passport, and he tells me my visa expired. I tell him no, that I've made a change in status and that I've done it legally," Alcivar said. One of the agents told him he was in the country illegally, he said, and Alcivar said that can't be.

Video of the encounter from a bystander, supplied by Haslam, shows the two ICE agents subsequently pulling Alcivar from his car, unsuccessfully attempting to cuff him and forcing him to the ground. The Ogden officer arrives with Alcivar on the ground, and the agents cuff the man.

"Alcivar Torres refused to comply with officers' lawful commands to exit his vehicle and continued to resist arrest. Officers relied on their training to gain control of the situation. The Ogden Police Department arrived on scene to assist officers with safely making the arrest," the Department of Homeland Security said in its statement.

Alcivar said paramedics called to the scene reported that his "vital signs were low" and he was eventually taken to a hospital. There, one of the medical officials said the man "was on the point of dying," Alcivar maintains. He said he tried to call Ogden police to the hospital so he could file an incident report against the ICE agents stemming from their handling of him.

An officer never spoke to him, though, which prompted his call to City Council members at the Oct. 13 meeting that Ogden police allow reports by people alleging they've been attacked by ICE agents.

"I call police and explain to them and clearly tell them that I was unnecessarily attacked by a police officer and two ICE agents. I need to make my report. Police never arrived or I don't know if they arrived," he said.

Alcivar has consulted a lawyer and is weighing his alternatives, but isn't sure what comes next.

"I can't do anything because they haven't given me a work permit, nothing. I can't do anything," he said.

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