A Hispanic nonprofit civil rights organization plans to file a $1 million lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. citizen who it asserts was assaulted and detained as part of a recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid in Los Angeles.
Job Garcia, 37, of Los Angeles says he was arrested and held for more than 24 hours after being tackled and thrown to the ground on June 19 while recording Customs and Border Protection and ICE agents during a raid in a Home Depot parking lot.
Garcia, a photographer and doctoral candidate at Claremont Graduate University, says he was at the store doing delivery work when the ICE raid began.
Attorneys argue that CBP and ICE agents unlawfully restrained and detained Garcia "without any valid grounds for interfering with his liberty and freedom of movement." As a result, attorneys say their client suffered economic losses and personal injury.
"When government engages in widespread violation of individual rights with respect to immigrants without status, the harm inevitably spills over and spreads to others; that is why we must insist, as a society, on respect for the rights of everyone," Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, said in a release.
"Here, a citizen, acting in the best traditions of our democracy, was engaged in documenting government misconduct to encourage policy change; he was wrongfully arrested and detained because of his race and his heroic efforts."
According to MALDEF, Garcia and other witnesses shouted to masked agents that they needed a warrant to arrest people. Upon seeing none of the agents presenting a warrant, Garcia used his phone to record what was happening.
He joined numerous other witnesses in yelling at officers who targeted a man in a truck, smashing the window.
"A split second after that is when he lunged at me," Garcia said of an agent. "I was still recording, so he pushes me, puts both hands on me, and I pushed his hand off. And then, he didn't like that, so he grabbed my left hand."
Garcia said he was tackled, placed on his stomach, and restrained. He added that some agents knelt on his back and neck as they handcuffed him, MALDEF said.
After agents confirmed Garcia is a U.S. citizen with no criminal warrants or information to suspect he committed a crime, they continued to hold him, attorneys said.
Garcia was arrested and placed in a holding area at Dodger Stadium before being taken to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where ICE agents and corrections officers attempted to question him without restating his rights. Garcia refused interrogation each time, according to MALDEF.
The next day, Garcia was released without arraignment or any information regarding a future court date, MALDEF said.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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