Police bodycam video shows ICE and Florida Highway Patrol officers arresting Jennifer Cruz on Jan. 13, 2026. | News4Jax
Published on June 18, 2026 at 12:18 pm
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A Jacksonville woman pleaded guilty to resisting arrest after punching a Florida Highway Patrol trooper and kicking an immigration officer in mid-January.
Jennifer Susan Cruz, 41, faces up to 20 years in federal prison when sentenced, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
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Cruz was initially arrested on 14 local charges on Jan. 13, including resisting an officer with violence, according to Duval County jail files. The U.S. Attorney’s Office then filed federal charges of assaulting officers during an immigration operation.
Federal immigration officers, aided by the Highway Patrol, were looking to “administratively arrest” people who were in the United States illegally, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.
According to Cruz’s arrest report, a trooper stopped her pickup after seeing her “holding a cellular phone and recording,” then tailgating a marked patrol car “in a manner that interfered with her ability to safely operate the vehicle.”
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The trooper stopped Cruz in a parking lot at Beach Boulevard and Art Museum Drive and found that her license had been suspended, but she drove away before being boxed in by police cars nearby, the report said.
Cruz refused to give up her keys when ordered out of the truck, then said “she was ready to fight, making a threat toward law enforcement,” the report said. When a trooper tried to get her keys, Cruz hit her in the face, then tried to kick another officer. She then kicked a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent as she was put in the back of a cruiser, the report said.
No sentencing date has been set, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
