Funds Raised After CA Dad Detained While Driving Wife To Hospital

INLAND EMPIRE, CA -- A fundraiser was underway Monday for a California family whose patriarch was cuffed last week while driving his wife to the hospital to give birth to their fifth child. U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement said its officers detained Joel Arrona-Lara because there is a warrant out for his arrest for a homicide in Mexico.

Arrona-Lara was detained when he and his wife, Maria del Carmen Venegas, stopped in San Bernardino to get gas while driving to the hospital. After Arrona-Lara was detained, Venegas drove herself to the hospital to give birth to a baby boy, she told the media.

Now, loved ones are asking the public for help in supporting the couple's family as Arrona-Lara is the breadwinner.

RELATED: Pregnant Woman: ICE Detained Husband While En Route To Hospital

"We are asking with all our heart if you can help with this family that is destroyed by an injustice by ICE," loved ones wrote on GoFundMe in Spanish. "(They have) taken this man from this family with no motive, being a hard-working man always taking care of his family."

Loved ones reject ICE's claim that there is a warrant for his detainment, claiming he was simply detained because he did not have identification with him.

"There was no order towards him," the GoFundMe page said.

"Now we ask for your help for the Arrona family and their kids who are destroyed and crying for the daddy," the GoFundMe said. "Help them. They need your help. Help them today, for it might be you tomorrow."

--Patch is a GoFundMe promotional partner