15-year-old US citizen held at gunpoint by ICE agents at CA school, claim says
A 15-year-old boy was sitting in a car outside a Los Angeles high school moments before he was faced with guns pointed at him by federal immigration agents, who are accused of racially profiling and wrongfully arresting him, according to attorneys representing him.
The teen, a U.S. citizen who has special needs, was “not the suspect of a crime” on Aug. 11, reads a letter accompanying a $1 million federal tort claim filed on behalf of the boy and his mother, Andreina Mejia. He had been waiting for a family member that day, as they registered for classes at Arleta High School, his attorneys said.
Mejia, who was also in the car with her son, recalled his fear and confusion upon being held at gunpoint while speaking at an Aug. 26 news conference, KABC reported.
“I just seen all of these men coming out of that truck, pointing their guns and a taser gun at my son and myself,” Mejia said, according to the TV station. “I looked at my son’s reaction and saw that he was scared. He didn’t know what was going on.”
The teen was forcefully restrained and apprehended by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol, according to the claim filed Aug. 25 with both agencies, as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Carrillo Law Firm, which shared the claim with McClatchy News, and the Law Offices of Christian Contreras are challenging his detainment, arguing ICE and Border Patrol violated his civil rights.
“ICE agents and Border Patrol agents detained him based on the practice of unconstitutional racial profiling,” attorneys wrote in the claim, adding that the agents used unnecessary force, causing the teen “physical injury and emotional distress.”
A DHS spokesperson, in response to McClatchy News’ request for comment, said Border Patrol agents were targeting a man from El Salvador, who the agency said is illegally in the U.S., on Aug. 11.
“Allegations that Border Patrol targeted Arleta High School are FALSE,” the DHS spokesperson said via email on Aug. 28.
They added that the teen’s family members helped Border Patrol apprehend him, describing him as a “suspected MS-13 gang member with a previous gun related conviction.”
CBP’s chief patrol agent of the El Centro sector, Gregory Bovino, shared a social media statement about agents arresting the man, the teen’s cousin, on Aug. 11.
“This is a case study of billboard law firms trying to turn family resemblance into racial animus to collect clicks, clout, and cash,” the DHS spokesperson told McClatchy News.
Attorney Michael Carrillo, of the Carrillo Law Firm, denied DHS’ assertion that the teen’s family helped DHS, calling it a “pure falsehood,” KABC reported.
Released from handcuffs
The teen was detained and handcuffed for about seven minutes before federal agents released him to Mejia, she detailed at the news conference, according to the San Fernando Sun.
Once the handcuffs were off, he raced toward her in tears and hugged her, Mejia said, the newspaper reported.
She shared that an officer told her son, according to the newspaper: “You’re gonna have an exciting story to tell your friends when you go back to school.”
Los Angeles School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho previously spoke out against the boy’s detainment at an Aug. 14 news conference, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“This is a child with disabilities who, as a result of his disabilities, has a difficult time decoding, communicating, understanding,” Carvalho said, the newspaper reported. “He was placed in handcuffs. Mom protested and said, ‘You have the wrong person.’ Finally, the officers realized that, in fact, this was a case of mistaken identity.”
The letter submitted with the legal claim argues federal agents are “liable for false arrest, false imprisonment, and battery by forcefully arresting (the teen) due to the unconstitutional racial profiling of a U.S. citizen.”
DHS has pushed back against the racial profiling accusations.
“What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity,” the agency’s spokesperson said in the statement to McClatchy News.
On Aug. 20, five U.S. citizens in Southern California also filed claims against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ICE and Customs and Border Protection over their arrests by immigration authorities in June and July, McClatchy News reported.
One of the citizens includes Cary Lopez Alvarado, who was 9 months pregnant and went into labor prematurely after a federal claim says she was wrongly arrested and assaulted by immigration agents on June 8, according to the Carrillo Law Firm, which represents her and the four other U.S. citizens.
A sixth claim was also filed Aug. 20 on behalf of a legal U.S. resident.
Several lawmakers on Aug. 8 demanded an investigation into reports of ICE detaining and deporting U.S. citizens in a letter sent to DHS, according to a news release from the office of Congressman Dan Goldman (NY-10).
The letter supporting the claim over the 15-year-old boy’s detention at Arleta High argues ICE and Border Patrol agents are “poorly trained” and “poorly supervised” by agency leaders, including Bovino, White House Border Czar Tom Homan and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
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