Video that seems to indicate federal immigration brokers utilizing their automobile to ram the truck of an immigrant rights activist has sparked controversy and public outrage within the metropolis of Oxnard, an agricultural city that has been the frequent goal of immigration raids.
On the middle of the controversy is a declare by federal brokers that the activist was the aggressor, ramming into their automobile.
The incident started shortly earlier than 8 a.m. Thursday when Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers notified the Oxnard Police Division that their automobile had been rammed by a civilian’s automobile close to the intersection of eighth and A streets, in response to Sgt. Martin Cook dinner.
“We responded, and ICE brokers detained a person, and a crowd began to collect,” Cook dinner mentioned. “We had been there to maintain the peace and forestall any sort of altercation with ICE or every other federal company.”
Cook dinner mentioned that federal businesses took management of the investigation. He didn’t know if the particular person arrested by brokers requested a police report and referred all inquiries to the Homeland Safety Division, which oversees businesses together with ICE and Customs and Border Safety.
VC Defensa, an immigrant rights group that has been documenting immigration raids within the area, mentioned on Instagram that considered one of its volunteers, whom the group recognized as Leo Martinez, had been arrested.
The group additionally launched video taken by witnesses that they mentioned confirmed that federal brokers’ allegation in opposition to Martinez was false.
“ICE deliberately struck Leo’s truck and blocked his exit whereas Leo was exercising his proper to watch ICE exercise,” the group acknowledged in considered one of its Instagram posts.
The video begins with a Jeep Cherokee with tinted home windows tailing a darkish grey truck earlier than ramming the passenger door on the driving force’s facet. The motive force of the truck then pulls into a mud lot, the place the group says Martinez was arrested.
“This shameful escalation by ICE is nothing greater than an try and intimidate these of conscience who’re standing up in opposition to Trump’s assault on immigrants,” the group mentioned on Instagram. “We won’t be deterred, and we are going to proceed to maintain our communities protected.”
The incident is the most recent controversy involving federal immigration brokers that has not solely sparked outrage amongst activists and residents but in addition raised questions on among the claims brokers made beforehand.
Two months in the past, federal immigration officers stopped Francisco Longoria in San Bernardino. Throughout the encounter, Longoria, who was in his truck together with his 18-year-old son and 23-year-old son-in-law, mentioned he feared for his or her security and drove off after masked officers shattered his automobile window and an officer fired a number of rounds on the truck.
Homeland Safety officers have mentioned officers had been injured throughout the encounter when Longoria tried to “run them down,” prompting one officer to “discharge his firearm in self-defense.”
Attorneys for Longoria dispute that their shopper injured the officers or tried to hit them and have known as for an investigation of the capturing.
In June, Arturo Hermosillo was accused of ramming his van in opposition to a federal agent’s automobile when he was instructed by the brokers to maneuver his van again to make room for an ambulance for a girl who had been injured throughout an immigration sweep.
Hermosillo was reversing when he mentioned a federal agent standing close to the automobile pushed in his facet view mirror, blocking his view; Hermosillo subsequently bumped right into a automobile behind him. Shortly after, brokers pulled him out of the van.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Safety Tricia McLaughlin informed The Occasions in an electronic mail on the time that an individual “rammed his automobile right into a legislation enforcement automobile” throughout the June 19 operation
“CBP Brokers had been additionally assaulted throughout the operation and verbally harassed,” she mentioned.
Movies that day didn’t seize any assaults; they confirmed residents yelling at brokers.
The incident in Oxnard echoes a degree of aggression by federal brokers seen on the streets of Chicago.
A Chicago-area mayor mentioned ICE brokers used extreme pressure when making arrests at a cemetery. A pastor who was protesting at a detention middle was shot within the head with a pepper ball. Troubled by the clashes between brokers and the general public, one federal decide is contemplating ordering brokers to put on physique cameras.
Homeland Safety didn’t reply to a request for remark from The Occasions. In a assertion to CNN, nonetheless, the division mentioned claims that the company is utilizing “harsher approaches” are “smearing” federal brokers who “put their lives on the road each day to implement the legislation.”
In downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, simply exterior the Metropolitan Detention Heart the place a crowd had gathered with indicators that say “Free Leo Now!” and “ICE out of L.A.,” they listened to Martinez as he thanked them for his or her assist and their work.
“I knew I didn’t do something f— improper; that’s why they launched me with pending fees,” he informed the gang. “That’s what they do with just about plenty of our volunteers trigger we didn’t do s— improper.
“They smashed into me,” he continued as folks clapped. “After which they tried to accuse me of assaulting them, what sort of bulls— is that?”
