FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinoza shows video footage of 23-year-old Joceline Penaloza Magana’s arrest by ICE agents during a press conference on August 26, 2026.

A Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been temporarily reassigned after allegedly detaining a 23-year-old woman during a traffic stop and waiting over an hour for federal immigration officers to respond.

Joceline Penaloza Magana was allegedly detained by a sheriff’s office deputy last week when her vehicle partially blocked an intersection at Westheimer Rd. and State Highway 6.

During a press conference Wednesday, a family member said the deputy called immigration officials and detained Magana for an hour waiting for their arrival.

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Magana, who has been in the United States for over 20 years, was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and is being detained in the Montgomery ICE processing center north of Houston, Kim Bruno, an attorney representing her, said.

“Joceline complied with officers and it didn’t get her anywhere,” Bruno said. “Joceline has spent her entire life here mostly and she graduated at the top of her class. It is unfortunate and despicable that our community does not feel safe anymore.”

Tess Rowland, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office, said the office is reviewing the circumstances surrounding the traffic stop to determine whether the deputy complied with policies. She did not say what the office’s guidelines are for coordinating with ICE.

“The deputy has been temporarily assigned to non-traffic enforcement duties pending the outcome of the internal review,” Rowland said in a statement to Houston Public Media.

Questions surrounding the Houston Police Department’s coordination with federal immigration officers have been driven by several incidents in which city officers detained people with civil immigration warrants during traffic stops and waited for ICE officers to respond. That prompted city councilmembers this year to pass an ordinance in an effort to limit the city’s coordination with ICE. But city officials reversed that measure under pressure from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

While Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz was appointed and reports to the mayor, county law enforcement offices operate under elected leaders and as independent entities from Harris County Commissioners Court — creating potential legal barriers for establishing county-informed law enforcement practices.

But prompted by the city’s effort to curtail coordination with ICE, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis in April directed the county attorney's office to develop guidelines on how county law enforcement should interact with federal immigration officers. The county attorney’s office did not immediate respond to a request for comment on the status of the guidelines on Wednesday.

RELATED: Harris County commissioner directs county attorney's office to develop ICE coordination guidelines

Cesar Espinoza, the executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights organization, said on Wednesday that he’s asking for clarification from the sheriff’s office about its procedures for coordinating with federal immigration officers after Magana’s arrest.

“If this officer acted against policy, he needs to be terminated immediately so that the Harris County Sheriff’s Office can regain the community’s trust otherwise this will only further the divide in the community and this will only increase fear in community members,” Espinoza said.