Cristiana Alejo Lamberto’s husband, José Guadalupe Alejo Lamberto, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside the El Paso County Courthouse on Nov. 5, 2025, following an initial appearance in a suspected DUI case stemming from a Sept. 26, 2025, traffic stop by the Colorado State Patrol.
Cristiana told the Pikes Peak Bulletin José paid $400 and signed an agreement to self-deport on Nov. 11 to avoid remaining detained at the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, Colorado, and possibly being transferred to an out-of-state detention center, a frequent ICE practice. National news reports detail lawsuits and statements from human rights organizations on issues with detainee transfers including increased difficulty in communicating with family or legal counsel and punitive conditions. Cristiana said José went to his mother’s home in Mexico.
Cristiana has been telling her family’s story on TikTok under the username trompiz87alejo.
Taken together, the TikTok videos paint a picture of family separation and its ongoing toll, especially on the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Daniela Alejo Lamberto.
One post is a bedtime talk between Cristiana and Daniela.
“Our nighttime conversations are killing me,” reads text atop footage of darkness.
In the minute-long video, Daniela cries softly. “I miss daddy,” she says.
Cristiana comforts Daniela as she asks when she can see her father, or when they might travel to her abuelita’s to see him.
A video pinned to the top of her page, viewed tens of thousands of times, starts with a brief clip from her husband’s arrest.
“Are you a United States citizen as well?” an ICE agent asks Cristiana.
The video then cuts to images illustrating Cristiana’s longstanding roots in the area – she is part of the large Autobee family, prominent in Pueblo, Colorado.
CBS did an article on the Autobees in 2025.
“The last name Autobee is prominent in these parts for a good reason: Charles Autobee. Part French-Canadian, part Canadian First Nations, and part Irish, he was the first non-Ute, Cheyenne, or Arapahoe person to settle in what is today Pueblo County, thanks to a Mexican land grant,” states the article, which quotes an Autobee family member characterizing the large extended family as highly diverse – including Chicanos, Mexicanos, white Americans and Native Americans – and active in the community. The Autobees are “soldiers, politicians, dentists, news reporters and chiefs, tradesmen and tradeswomen, and much more,” the article says.
Part of Cristiana’s interview with the Bulletin for this story was done over text from a hospital bed as she was treated for severe asthma.
She told the Bulletin her lung problems are long-standing and she used to receive disability payments; those stopped when she married José and he provided for the family. Even though the couple separated last May, José continued to support her and Daniela while they worked toward reconciliation.
She said José, who is 34 years old, worked so much for the family, going through the immigration process got put on the back burner.
Without José’s income, Cristiana has no way to support herself and the children. Getting disability benefits reinstated is not a fast process, nor would it pay enough to support her family, she said. Cristiana hopes to work at least part-time if her health allows – though she said it’s unclear how she’ll make ends meet.
Cristiana said José came to the United States a decade ago seeking “a better life.”
“His family is extremely poor,” she said.
Cristiana said she met José in a restaurant where he worked and they were married on Nov. 16, 2018. Jose self-deported on their seventh anniversary.
On top of illness and financial issues, Cristiana said her mental health has taken a hit from the arrest and separation.
“I’m having to go to therapy because of it,” she said. “Because I can’t sleep at night.”
Cristiana said she has no money for an attorney and it is unclear how or when the family might be reunited.
The arrest video footage
The Alejo Lambertos had just left the El Paso County Courthouse on Nov. 5 after José had an initial appearance for an alleged DUI. Cristiana started filming after ICE agents approached them in the courthouse parking lot. She shared the video footage with the Bulletin.
The interaction started off tense but polite, but escalated when Cristiana called her mother to ask her to pick up her daughter. An ICE agent interpreted the call as her asking family members to come to the scene, which the agent believed would endanger the officers. The agents then broke the window of Cristiana’s truck and removed José, and took him into custody.
Throughout the encounter, Cristiana asked repeatedly to see a warrant. An ICE agent said they were authorized to make warrentless arrests, but were in the process of getting one for José. José was taken into custody without a warrant being shown, video footage shows.
Warrentless arrests
Just days after José self-deported to Mexico, outlets including Colorado Newsline reported that a federal judge in Denver found ICE “routinely” made unlawful warrentless arrests in Colorado, and ordered the Trump administration to stop this practice and prove compliance with the law. The judge issued an injunction requiring immigration officers to document the facts supporting an assertion that the person was likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained.
The DUI charge
The Bulletin submitted a records request to the Fourth Judicial District for the ticket and the results of any blood alcohol test or other test to determine sobriety related to the court case that brought José to the courthouse the day he was taken into ICE custody.
The Bulletin received one document in response to this request, a Uniform Summons & Complaint or Penalty Assessment by the Colorado State Patrol. The document indicates José allegedly “drove a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs or both.”
No documentation of José’s blood alcohol level or other proof of intoxication was provided.
The document also alleges José “operated or permitted to be operated an uninsured motor vehicle on public highway,” “failed to drive within a single lane (weaving)” and “drank from/possessed an open alcoholic beverage container in a motor vehicle.”
A Colorado Bureau of Investigation Internet Criminal History Check shows no record of a previous arrest in Colorado.
No comment or info from ICE
Unlike regular law enforcement agencies, ICE does not maintain a public record of their daily activity like a police blotter. ICE agents do not have standard uniforms, badge display protocol, or body camera policy. As the Bulletin has noted before, the agency operates largely out of public view with little mechanism for transparency or accountability.
The Bulletin reached out to ICE’s Denver Field Office seeking information and comment on this story, including how ICE knew José would be at the courthouse at that time, why ICE decided to arrest him, and whether a warrant was obtained or provided. In an unsigned email from ICE Denver Public Affairs, ICE asked what our deadline was for this story, but never answered any of the questions and did not reply to several follow-up emails.
