Dual Citizen Charged in ICE Facility Attack Said He ‘Went Batman,’ Claimed DHS Was ‘Hurting His People’

A 19-year-old West Valley man faces federal charges after authorities say he attempted to set fire to a planned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Surprise, Arizona, and later told investigators he “went Batman” to stop the project.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the District of Arizona, a federal grand jury indicted Gabriel Mendoza-Acoltzi, 19, of Avondale, on charges of Malicious Damage to Federal Property and Willful Depredation Against Property of the United States stemming from a February incident at an ICE-owned property in Surprise. Federal authorities allege Mendoza-Acoltzi, a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, attempted to set fire to the building shortly after 1 a.m. on February 21. 

Avondale Man Faces Federal Charges for Vandalizing ICE Property in Arizona https://t.co/0VNgG9inWU

— US Attorney Arizona (@USAO_AZ) May 21, 2026

Court documents cited by federal prosecutors allege that surveillance footage captured Mendoza-Acoltzi arriving at the property on Feb. 21 at around midnight in a Honda Civic and placing a propane tank next to the building. Prosecutors allege later footage showed him swinging the propane tank at a window, breaking the glass, and using a torch connected to the tank to ignite window shades inside the lobby. Responding investigators also reportedly discovered a profane anti-ICE message, “F**k ICE,” arranged with landscaping rocks outside the property. 

Credit: U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona

The indictment was unsealed after Mendoza-Acoltzi was taken into custody on May 7. U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael T. Morrissey granted prosecutors’ request to hold him pending further proceedings. If convicted of malicious damage to federal property, Mendoza-Acoltzi could face between five and twenty years in federal prison, along with fines and supervised release, according to the Justice Department. Federal officials emphasized that an indictment is a formal accusation and that defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court. 

In the prosecution’s Memorandum in Support of Detention, obtained by The Arizona Mirror, the USAO argued, 

“Defendant Gabriel Mendoza-Acoltzi’s actions have already demonstrated two things. First, he is willing to send a political message using violence—to him, that is the right thing to do. Second, when law enforcement attempts to apprehend him, he will flee. Add to that Defendant’s (1) significant ties to foreign nations, (2) mental-health struggles, (3) daily marijuana use, (4) lack of ties to this District, and (5) a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence on one of his charges. The result is a lack of conditions that can assure Defendant’s voluntary appearance or the safety of the community.”

Federal prosecutors also pointed to what they described as a lack of remorse on the defendant’s part, stating, “Recent history shows that Defendant is ready, willing, and able to advocate his political beliefs through violence, and to do so remorselessly.”

They stated that Mendoza-Acoltzi waived his Miranda rights and “readily admitted” setting fire to the building, saying he “did it out of protest” and sought to stop the Department of Homeland Security from “hurting his people.”

Prosecutors further noted that “[A]lthough he is a U.S. citizen, he is also a citizen of Mexico, a country to which he has traveled five times and where he has extended family. Defendant also has extended family in Brazil, a country whose flag he displayed from the rearview mirror of his Civic. He has traveled to Brazil twice,” and argued he presented a flight risk.

The Surprise facility has become a flashpoint in Arizona’s ongoing immigration debate, as previously reported by The California Globe.

The federal government plans to convert the warehouse into an ICE detention center capable of housing approximately 1,500 detainees, a proposal that has generated sustained opposition from immigration activists and local critics. 

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed suit in April seeking to block the project, as previously reported, arguing the detention center violates federal law and raises environmental and public safety concerns due to its industrial location near hazardous materials storage. Federal immigration officials rejected those claims and defended the project as part of broader detention and enforcement operations. 

The investigation involved the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ICE, and the Surprise Police and Fire Departments, according to the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors Ryan McCarthy and Stephen Marlowe are handling the case. 

This marks one of the first criminal cases tied directly to the increasingly contentious—and now violent—dispute surrounding ICE’s planned warehouse detention expansion in Arizona.