Miguel De La Cruz-Lux
Sentenced. De La Cruz-Lux pleaded guilty to one count of assault of a federal officer and was sentenced to 24 months in prison for injuring an ICE agent during a January 2026 arrest attempt.
Introduction
Miguel De La Cruz-Lux, 22, a Guatemalan national living in the United States unlawfully, was sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for assaulting and injuring a federal law enforcement agent who was trying to arrest him . The sentence, announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas on October 22, 2026, closed a case that began as an ordinary immigration arrest in Arkansas City, Kansas, and turned physical when De La Cruz-Lux refused to get out of his car . The injury itself was small and deliberate: as agents pulled him from the vehicle, he grabbed and twisted one of the agent’s fingers hard enough to dislocate it .
Background Information
According to court documents, De La Cruz-Lux pleaded guilty to one count of assault of a federal officer . In January 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were in Arkansas City attempting to execute an arrest warrant for him; an immigration judge had already issued a final order of removal . The agents stopped him while he was driving and attempted to explain through his closed car window that they had a warrant for his arrest . He refused their repeated requests to roll down the window and open the door, and the agents received authorization from their supervisor to break the driver’s side window to remove him .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The assault happened in the stretch of the arrest after the window came out. After law enforcement opened his car door, De La Cruz-Lux resisted by holding onto the steering wheel; agents eventually got him out of the vehicle, and he continued to resist as officers placed him in handcuffs . During that period, the defendant grabbed and twisted one of the agent’s fingers, dislocating it — the act his plea to assault of a federal officer attaches to . Nothing in the account suggests a weapon or a prolonged struggle; the charged conduct is the deliberate injury of an agent’s hand during a lawful arrest he was trying to prevent .
Public Reaction and Consequences
U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser called attacks on federal agents carrying out their sworn duties reprehensible, adding: “When a judge issues an arrest warrant for someone, being taken into custody is not optional.” ICE Chicago Assistant Field Office Director Chris Chamberlain said, “Violence against federal law enforcement will not be tolerated,” and argued the defendant “chose to resist a lawful arrest and physically attack an ICE officer, causing a serious injury” . The case was investigated by ICE .
Current Status
De La Cruz-Lux, 22, is serving a 24-month federal sentence after his guilty plea to assault of a federal officer . The release does not state whether his final order of removal has since been executed or when . What the record does establish is the sequence: a warrant, a refusal at the window, a broken car window authorized by a supervisor, and an agent’s dislocated finger before the handcuffs closed .
Impact on Their Career/Life
At 22, De La Cruz-Lux carries a federal felony conviction for assaulting a federal officer and a two-year prison term — a sentence layered on top of the removal order that started the encounter. The case is the District of Kansas’ example of the second charge an immigration arrest can produce: the underlying warrant made him a removal case, but the grip on the agent’s finger made him an assault defendant, with a sentence measured in years rather than a bus ride out of the country.
Sources
- U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Kansas, “Illegal alien sentenced to prison for assaulting ICE agent,” October 22, 2026 — source