Adrian Martinez, a 20-year-old Walmart employee, witnessed Border Patrol officers escorting a worker who was cleaning the Pico Rivera shopping center parking lot on Tuesday as he was making his way back from break. As more onlookers gathered around the truck, shouting and honking their horns, he leaped out of the automobile and wheeled the man’s trash can in front of the vehicle.
An agent is seen hurrying Martinez and pushing him to the ground in surveillance and bystander footage that was taken at the moment and played on social media. After he gets back up and further pushing occurs, he yells at a masked cop brandishing a rifle before additional agents rush him, throw him back down, and haul him to their truck.
What is he doing? Martinez can be heard shouting, “He’s a f hard worker,” as additional agents—some of whom are dressed in plain clothes—arrive, push him, and take him into custody.
Bill Essayli, the top prosecutor in Los Angeles, wrote on X that Martinez was taken into custody on suspicion of hitting a border patrol agent in the face after he tried to distract them from their immigration enforcement mission.
The camera footage did not clearly show the purported punch. As the agents shoo Martinez into the car, someone can be heard yelling, “He’s a U.S. citizen, bro.” While others struggle with Martinez, an agent can be heard and seen cocking a revolver in the footage of the altercation.
Martinez is among a small number of Americans whose detentions or arrests by immigration officials during the past two weeks have drawn international notice.
Following an altercation during a raid in downtown Los Angeles earlier this month, Essayli accused union head David Huerta of conspiring to obstruct an officer. After standing between agents and the vehicle transporting her spouse, a pregnant woman in Torrance was detained. Additionally, Border Patrol officers last week detained Javier Ramirez, a U.S. citizen employed at a tow yard in Montebello, fewer than three miles from Tuesday’s event. Another American, Brian Gavidia, was also arrested and interrogated. He was pressed against a fence and asked whose hospital he was born in.
The clashes have heightened tensions in Los Angeles County’s predominantly Latino neighborhoods, where the majority of the raids are being carried out by federal officials. According to the Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, its personnel are facing more and more threats as they attempt to implement the law.
Many people in the community believe that pushing back is morally required.
Myra Villareal, Martinez’s mother, stated that she wasn’t entirely shocked that her son attempted to assist. He frequently brings in homeless animals in need of a home.
According to his sister Samantha Villareal, he wants to be the first one there if someone is harmed.
His mother also said, “I want justice for him.” It’s wrong what happened to him. He did nothing improper. I thought he was raising his voice. Everyone is entitled to talk. Freedom of expression, you know.
She claimed that for hours following Martinez’s arrest, she was unable to locate him. She eventually verified that he was being held downtown at midnight. This Wednesday afternoon, she spoke with him.
Videos don’t tell the complete narrative and miss important moments, Customs and Border Protection said in a statement to The Times.
As Border Patrol agents apprehended an undocumented immigrant at the Lowe’s shop in the same plaza while on roving patrol, they were approached by a hostile mob that tried to obstruct their work, the statement claimed.
California
A U.S. citizen is arrested on assault charges by Border Patrol personnel on roaming patrol. As Home Depots and car washes are searched, there is growing concern about rampant racial profiling.
One of the group members allegedly assaulted another agent in the arm and punched another agent in the face. According to the statement, the U.S. attorney’s office has been tasked with prosecuting Martinez for obstructing or assaulting a federal official. As of Wednesday evening, there was no complaint available.
According to the statement, hostile organizations continue to confront DHS agents and officers as well as partner agents, making it difficult for them to carry out their jobs. The community, the agents, and the people being detained are all put in danger by this interference. Whether a citizen or not, interfering with federal law enforcement is illegal.
Greg Bovino, Sector Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, doubled down. Bovino has hundreds of his agents conducting the sweeps in Southern California.
Once more, a fabricated story about the arrest of a U.S. citizen in Pico Rivera, California, is being spread via X. He linked to Essayli’s piece and remarked, “Don’t take our word for it.” A federal case for assault on a federal agent was recently brought against this individual. DO NOT ASSAULT.
“They’re trying to spin this and make it seem like [Martinez] was the aggressor when they were the aggressors the entire time,” said Oscar Preciado, who was at the scene and took video.
Ramirez was accused of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a federal officer during the Montebello raid in a federal criminal complaint. According to authorities, he fled toward the tow yard’s exit while attempting to hide and refused to answer inquiries about his citizenship and identification. They also claim that he bit and shoved an agent.
Tomas De Jesus, his lawyer, has refuted the accusations, claiming that Ramirez is the victim and not the attacker.
Concerns regarding agent techniques are being voiced by officials in the targeted cities.
Salvador Melendez, the mayor of Montebello, described the situation as “extremely frustrating” after watching the video of another American being questioned.
“It appears that due process is not being followed,” he remarked. The design they are aiming for is a representation of our immigrant and Latino communities. After that, they’re asking questions. This is not the nation that we all know it to be, where people are protected and have their own rights.
Rep. Linda T. S nchez (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. According to her, it seems like civil rights laws were broken in the occurrence.
The fact that a U.S. citizen who works at Walmart to support his family and is, by all accounts, a respectable member of his community is still being held by the federal government really disturbs me, she said.
She insisted that they evaluate the agencies and individuals involved in Mr. Hernandez’s violent arrest and unjust incarceration, as well as submit any planning documents and warrants.
Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmonasaid in a statementTuesday: 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 fromneighborhood to neighborhood. There are now apps. Neighbors on Nextdoor andRingblare 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 toprotest 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.
Politics
Brian Gavidia, who was born and raised in East Los Angeles, was questioned by men wearing vests with Border Patrol Federal Agent written on them.
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.
