Tensions flare as agents arrest another U.S. citizen for interfering in immigration arrests
A 20-year-old Walmart employee, Adrian Martinez, was returning from break on Tuesday when he saw Border Patrol agents taking a worker cleaning the shopping center parking lot in Pico Rivera. He jumped out of the car and wheeled the man's trash can in front of the vehicle as other passersby gathered around the truck yelling, blaring their horns.
Surveillance and spectator video captured at the scene and looped in social media feeds show an agent rushing Martinez and shoving him to the ground. He gets back up, there is more shoving, and he then exchanges angry words with a masked officer carrying a rifle, before other agents swarm him and push him back down, then drag him to their truck.
'What is he doing? He's a f— hard worker,' Martinez can be heard yelling as more agents arrive, some in plain clothes, shoving him and forcibly arresting him.
L.A.'s top's prosecutor, Bill Essayli, posted on X that Martinez 'was arrested for an allegation of punching a border patrol agent in the face after he attempted to impede their immigration enforcement operation.'
The alleged punch was not clear on video footage. A person can be heard shouting, 'He's a U.S. citizen, bro,' as the agents shove Martinez into the car. In the videos of the confrontation, an agent is seen and heard cocking a gun, as others tussle with Martinez.
Martinez is one of a handful of American citizens whose arrests or detainments by immigration officers over the last two weeks have gained widespread attention.
Earlier this month Essayli charged union leader David Huerta with conspiracy to impede an officer after an encounter at a raid in downtown Los Angeles. A pregnant woman in Torrance was held after she stood between agents and the car carrying her husband. And less than three miles from Tuesday's incident, in Montebello, Border Patrol agents last week arrested Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen who was working at a tow yard. They also detained and questioned another U.S. citizen, Brian Gavidia, pushing him up against a fence as they asked him what hospital he was born in.
The confrontations have added to tensions in the largely Latino enclaves in Los Angeles County where federal agents are conducting most of the raids. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has said that its officers are increasingly under threat while trying to enforce laws.
Many in the community see it as a moral imperative to push back.
Martinez's mom, Myra Villareal, said in some ways it didn't surprise her that her son tried to help. He often brings in stray animals that need a home.
'If someone gets hurt, he wants to be the first one there,' said his sister Samantha Villareal.
'I want justice for him,' his mom added. 'What happened to him is wrong. He didn't do anything wrong. I believed he was speaking up. Everybody has a right to speak. You know, freedom of speech.'
She said she couldn't find Martinez for hours after his arrest. Around midnight, she finally confirmed he was being detained downtown. She talked to him Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement to The Times, Customs and Border Protection said videos 'are missing critical moments and don't tell the whole story.'
Border Patrol agents conducting 'roving patrols' were 'confronted by a hostile group that attempted to interfere with their duties' as they arrested an undocumented immigrant at the Lowe's store in the same plaza, the statement said.
An agent was allegedly punched in the face and another agent was struck in the arm by a member of the group. The statement said the case against Martinez has been presented to the U.S. attorney's office for prosecution for impeding or assaulting a federal officer. No complaint was available as of Wednesday night.
'Agents and officers from DHS and partner agents continue to be confronted by hostile groups that interfere with their ability to perform their duties,' the statement read. 'This interference places those being arrested, the agents, and the community at risk. Interfering with federal law enforcement is a crime and a felony—citizen or not.'
U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has hundreds of his agents carrying out the sweeps in Southern California, doubled down.
'Once again, a false narrative is and was being pushed out on the arrest of a U.S. citizen in Pico Rivera, CA,' he posted on X. 'Don't take our word for it,' he said linking to Essayli's post. 'This subject just caught a federal case for assault on a federal agent. DON'T ASSAULT.'
Oscar Preciado, who was at the scene and recorded video, pushed back on the allegations, saying that, 'they're trying to spin this and make it seem like [Martinez] was the aggressor when they were the aggressors the whole time.'
In the Montebello raid, Ramirez was charged in a federal criminal complaint with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. Authorities allege that he was trying to conceal himself and then ran toward the exit of the tow yard and refused to answer questions about his identity and citizenship. They also allege he pushed and bit an agent.
His attorney, Tomas De Jesus, has denied the allegations, stating that Ramirez 'is the victim, not the aggressor.'
Officials in the targeted cities are raising flags about agents' tactics.
Montebello Mayor Salvador Melendez said he'd watched the video of another U.S. citizen being questioned and called the situation 'extremely frustrating.'
'It just seems like there's no due process,' he said. 'They're going for a specific look, which is a look of our Latino community, our immigrant community. They're asking questions after. ... This is not the country that we all know it to be, where folks have individual rights and protections.'
Rep. Linda T. Sánchez (D-Whittier), who represents the area, on Wednesday sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, saying she had 'grave concern regarding the arrest and detention' of Martinez. She said the incident appears to have violated civil rights laws.
'I am deeply troubled that a U.S. citizen, who supports his family by working at Walmart, and is, by all accounts, an upstanding member of his community, continues to be detained by the federal government,' she wrote.
She demanded they provide planning documents and any warrants and that they review the agencies and personnel involved in the 'violent arrest and unconstitutional detention of Mr. Hernandez.'
Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona said in a statement Tuesday: 'We are increasingly concerned about the nature and tone of these recent actions. Reports of heightened enforcement tactics, warrantless stops, and operations that appear to target specific communities raise serious concerns about proportionality, fairness, and due process.'
The videos have sparked outrage and underscored an increasing agitation on both sides. Immigrant advocates are chasing agents from neighborhood to neighborhood. Apps have popped up. Neighbors on Nextdoor and Ring blare warnings of raids. And crowds and live streamers gather when they spot unannounced immigration operation on the streets.
On Tuesday night, dozens, including Martinez's friends, gathered in Pico Rivera to protest the immigration actions. They chanted 'ICE out of Pico' and waved Mexican and American flags.
Preciado, a 33-year-old Instacart worker, shot video of the scuffle in the parking lot on Tuesday morning. He ran toward the scene after seeing a commotion with three Border Patrol trucks and three unmarked vehicles.
In his video, Preciado questions and curses the agents as other arrive and jump out of unmarked trucks with rifles.
'You can hear one of the guys cock the gun ... and he was pointing it at us, telling us to get away,' Preciado recounted.
By then, several masked agents with guns — some with camouflage, several in plain clothes — had taken custody of Vivaldo Montes Herrera, the man Martinez had tried to defend.
Montes Herrera has lived in the U.S. for 27 years, according to his wife.
Preciado said agents grabbed him as well, with one putting his hand around his neck.
'That's when I told him, I'm a U.S. citizen and I'm exercising my rights to record,' Preciado said. 'That's when the guy swatted the phone from my hand.'
A video shows his phone being knocked to the ground. Preciado said his screen protector shattered from the impact.
He said soon after, four or five people tackled Martinez to the ground.
'The guy weighs like 100 pounds, maybe. He doesn't need five people trying to tackle him and doing all this stuff to him,' Preciado said. 'You can see them twisting his arm, grabbing him by the neck, getting on top of him.
'This is not normal. This is not something that should be normal at all,' he said. 'These guys are armed and dressed as if they're going to war, on U.S. citizens, on people just trying to get by and work.'
On Wednesday, Montes Herrera's wife, Claudia Mejia, said she still didn't know where her husband is being held. He had been able to call her briefly after his arrest.
'Me agarro migracion,' he told her, asking her to take good care of their nearly 2-year-old daughter.
Normally, when he returned home to South L.A. from his shift around 3 p.m., his daughter waited excitedly to greet him at the door. He never arrived.
On Wednesday, the girl wailed in the background as Mejia described her husband as a hard worker 'dedicated to his job and our home.'
A doting father, her husband was often the one to put the baby to bed. With him gone, his wife said she's placed one of his shirts on the baby's pillow so the little girl could fall asleep with a piece of him.
'So she knows her father is there,' Mejia said. 'Tell me, what did he do that was so bad or so damaging for them to take him like they did.'
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