Latest news with #RubenSalazarHighSchool
The Guardian
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
LA school district demands inquiry after Ice officers filmed urinating on campus
A Los Angeles school district is demanding an investigation of an incident last month during which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents gathered at a local high school before a raid and were seen publicly urinating on school grounds, not far from where elementary school students were attending summer classes. According to a statement from El Rancho unified school district, which also released video evidence in the form of surveillance-camera footage, the incident took place on the morning of 17 June at Ruben Salazar high school in Pico Rivera, in south-eastern LA county. After school staff observed eight to 10 marked and unmarked Ice vehicles arrive on the high school campus, which is adjacent to an elementary school, a park and a preschool playground, they asked the federal agents to leave. The school has since written to Kristi Noem, the US homeland security secretary, to request an inquiry. 'At no time was a legal or legitimate reason offered or provided as to why Ice agents entered and remained on school grounds, nor did they provide any judicial warrant,' the school district said in the statement. Later the same day, federal immigration agents were caught on video roughly arresting a 20-year-old US citizen, Adrian Martinez, during an immigration raid at a nearby Pico Rivera shopping center. Martinez had verbally objected to the arrest of a co-worker but now faces a felony charge of interfering with or impeding a federal agent. After the Ice agents agreed to leave the high school campus, school district staff told managers that they had seen the federal agents 'urinating at Salazar in public view'. A review of surveillance camera video, posted on YouTube by the school district, appears to show 10 federal agents urinating near storage containers in the high school parking lot, from 8.54am to 9.04am. Not only did Ice agents 'unlawfully trespass' on school grounds, the district complained, 'but they also did not exercise sound and respectful judgment with the risk of exposing themselves to minors and committing a public offense under California law'. According to the law firm Eisner Gorin, whose partners have previously worked in the Los Angeles district attorney's office, when an act of public urination 'occurs near a school or park where children are present, it might be classified as lewd conduct' under state law. Anyone convicted of this offense, the firm notes on its website, faces up to six months in county jail, a fine of up to $1,000 and being required to register as a sex offender. 'It's not enough that they've spent weeks violently ambushing people, now Ice and CBP agents are allegedly entering school campuses, pulling down their pants and urinating on playgrounds,' Los Angeles county supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement. 'It's a slap in the face to our communities – especially to our children. I join the El Rancho unified school district in demanding a full federal investigation into this incident.' A homeland security spokesperson told the Guardian, 'This matter is being investigated.'
New York Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Immigration Agents Appear to Urinate in Public at a California School
The line of S.U.V.s and vans streamed through an open gate, many unmarked, but two had U.S. Customs and Border Protection logos. It was the staff parking lot at the back of Ruben Salazar High School in Pico Rivera, a city in Southern California where more than 90 percent of residents are Latino. The sight of federal agents alone was alarming on June 17, less than two weeks after the Trump administration sent the National Guard to the Los Angeles region to protect federal officials who had ramped up their raids targeting undocumented immigrants. Then, the agents, some wearing fatigues, emerged from the vehicles. At least eight of them ducked behind storage containers on campus, some peering over their shoulders. In the shadows, one at a time, the men appeared to relieve themselves, based on footage captured by overhead security cameras. Officials at the El Rancho Unified School District, which serves more than 7,000 students southeast of downtown Los Angeles, demanded an investigation into those federal officers. They said the agents were not allowed to be on school grounds, let alone use the blacktop and walls of storage containers as impromptu urinals. The incident was the latest example of how Southern California residents and local leaders have kept close watch on the federal immigration officers who have stepped up raids targeting undocumented immigrants in the region. The episode at Salazar High School was one of the first times this year that a public agency has circulated its own video of federal agents and used the footage to call out their behavior. The ongoing sweeps of street vendors, day laborers and other workers in the region have had a chilling effect on Latino communities in the Los Angeles area, prompting many people to stay home from work and cancel public gatherings. Activists and bystanders, in turn, have used their phones to film the raids and then have shared the footage broadly on social media. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
‘Exposing themselves to minors': ICE agents ‘caught on video urinating on grounds of LA public school in broad daylight'
Footage appears to show Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents urinating on the grounds of a Los Angeles public school, which they described as a 'deeply disturbing' incident. Members of the El Rancho Unified School District Board wrote to the Department of Homeland Security to complain about the alleged incident and accused the ICE agents of risking 'exposing themselves to minors.' It follows a period of heightened tension in LA and Southern California as communities push back against ICE and the Trump administration's aggressive deportation agenda. The school board claimed the agents urinated against a storage container beside the playground of the Ruben Salazar High School in Pico Rivera on the morning of June 17. It was also close to where students were in session. Footage shared by the school appears to confirm the claims, as one by one the agents walk toward the storage container and stand for a few moments. The DHS did not respond to questions about the alleged incident when approached by The Independent, other than to confirm 'the matter is under investigation.' 'A review of ERUSD video surveillance from the date of the Incident reveals that ERUSD's video footage captured approximately ten ICE agents urinating near storage containers on the Salazar campus' parking lot,' the school board wrote in a letter on July 2 addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. 'Any reasonable person, of any profession, entering Salazar where the ICE agents were urinating would clearly recognize the surroundings to be those of a school where minors are taught,' the letter continued. 'ICE agents unlawfully trespassed ERUSD school grounds and did not exercise sound and respectful judgment with the risk of exposing themselves to minors and committing a public offense under California law.' The school also accused ICE agents of unlawfully trespassing and requested the department hand over the names and badge numbers of each of the agents and their supervisors who 'aided, allowed, caused and permitted such unlawful behavior to take place.' It was a 'deeply concerning' incident, the letter added. District staff claimed that the agents failed to provide any judicial warrant or legitimate reason for being on school grounds. The agents did leave after staff told them they did not have permission to enter the school, the LA Times reports. The reason for the agents' presence on campus remains unknown, the outlet added. In April, the board issued a warning about ICE operations in the area. 'The ERUSD board wants its students, staff, families and community to know and understand that maintaining a safe and supportive environment at each ERUSD school site is at the forefront our of our actions and policies,' school board president John Contreras said. 'These actions by DHS and ICE agents raise alarming and pressing questions regarding ICE's behavior and judgment.' Their warnings follow the anti-ICE protests that erupted across Southern California last month following aggressive raids in LA. The Trump administration took a heavy handed approach to the protests, deploying the National Guard to support local authorities to deal with demonstrators.
