Latest news with #immigrationagents
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Immigration agent fires shots at vehicle with people inside in San Bernardino operation
San Bernardino police responded to what they described as "an officer-involved shooting" involving federal immigration officers Saturday morning. When police officers responded to the area of Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street shortly before 9 a.m., they encountered immigration agents who said they had fired at a suspect who then fled the scene. Soon after, according to the San Bernardino Police Department, a man — who has not been identified — contacted the dispatch center, saying that masked men had tried to pull him over, broke his car window and shot at him. He said he didn't know who they were and asked for police assistance. In a statement Saturday night, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said agents had been conducting a targeted enforcement operation in San Bernardino and said that "[Customs and Border Protection] officers were injured during a vehicle stop when a subject refused to exit his vehicle and tried to run them down." "In the course of the incident the suspect drove his car at the officers and struck two CBP officers with his vehicle," the statement read. Because of that, the official said, a CBP officer discharged his firearm "in self-defense." According to a press release from the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, federal agents broke the driver and passenger windows of the vehicle and fired three times. Video the group uploaded on Facebook appeared to capture the interaction, showing agents wearing "police" vests and shouting at those inside to roll down the window. "No la voy a abrir," the man said from inside, saying he wasn't going to open it. Soon after, the video captured the sound of shattering glass and what sounded like three shots being fired. The video showed a man wearing a hat with CBP on it. The video appears to show the vehicle move a short distance after the windows are smashed, but does not capture the driver striking the officers. "This was a clear abuse of power," the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice said in its release. "Firing at civilians, harassing families without cause, and targeting community voices must stop." According to the San Bernardino Police Department, officers later located the vehicle in the 1000 block of Mt. View Drive and made contact with the man, but they said it was unclear what federal agents wanted him for. "Under the California Values Act, California law enforcement agencies are prohibited from assisting federal officials with immigration enforcement, so our officers left the scene as the investigation was being conducted by federal authorities," police said in a news release. In a statement, a DHS spokesperson misidentified the police department, describing it as the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, and said local authorities had the man in custody but then set him free. "This decision was made despite the subject refusing to comply and wounding two officers — another terrible example of California's pro-sanctuary policies in action that shield criminals instead of protecting communities," the unidentified spokesperson said. At 1:12 p.m., federal officials requested assistance from the department because a large crowd was forming as they attempted to arrest the suspect, the police said. At that time, federal agents told police he was wanted for allegedly assaulting a federal officer. Police responded and provided support with crowd control, according to the department. The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice said in a news release that the agents didn't present a warrant and remained outside the home until 3:45 p.m., "pressuring the individual to come outside." The group added that two community members "were detained using unnecessary force, including one for speaking out." "Federal agents requested assistance during a lawful arrest for assaulting a federal officer when a crowd created a potential officer safety concern," the police department said in a statement. "This was not an immigration-related arrest, which would be prohibited under California law." Federal investigators are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the shooting, according to the police. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Judge weighs whether Trump violated federal law by deploying National Guard to Los Angeles
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in San Francisco is weighing whether the Trump administration violated federal law by sending National Guard troops to accompany immigration agents on raids in Southern California. A three-day trial on the matter concluded Wednesday.
The Independent
17-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
In American life, a growing and forbidding visual rises: the law-enforcement officer in a mask
In a matter of months, it has become a regular sight around the country — immigration enforcement agents detaining people and taking them into custody, often as public anger and outcry unfold around them. But in the process, something has disappeared: the agents' faces, covered by caps, sunglasses, pulled-up neck gaiters or balaclavas, effectively rendering them unidentifiable. With the year only half over, the covered face — as deployed by law enforcement in a wave of immigration crackdowns directed by President Donald Trump 's White House — has become one of the most potent and contentious visuals of 2025. The increase in high-profile immigration enforcement was already contentious between those opposed to the actions of Trump's administration and those in support of them. The sight of masked agents carrying it out is creating a whole new level of conflict, in a way that has no real comparison in the U.S. history of policing. Trump administration officials have consistently defended the practice, saying that immigration agents have faced strident and increasing harassment in public and online as they have gone about their enforcement, and hiding their identities is for their and their families' safety to avoid things like death threats and doxxing, where someone's personal information is released without their permission on the internet. 'I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is,' Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting director Todd Lyons said last month. There's pushback, as expected Democrats and others, including the several state attorneys general, have pushed back, saying the use of face masks generates public fear and should be halted. In a letter to Lyons last week, a group of Democratic senators said the stepped-up immigration enforcement in workplaces, restaurants and other sites was already causing dismay and the increasingly common sight of masked agents 'represents a clear attempt to compound that fear and chaos – and to avoid accountability for agents' actions.' In American culture, covering one's face has often gone hand in hand with assumptions of negative behavior. Think bandits donning bandanas in cowboy movies, or robbers putting on ski masks before pulling a heist on a bank. Even comic-book superheroes who cover their faces have been swept up in storylines in recent years that derisively refer to them as 'masks' and say their decision to hide their identities while enforcing justice is transgressive. And the presence of masked police or paramilitary forces in other countries has been seen by Americans as antithetical to promised democracy and justice for all — and to the common-law principle of being able to face your accusers. Mask-wearing overall in American life took another hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many Trump supporters scoffed at notions that protective masks would insulate people from the deadly virus and scorned people who wore them. More recently, Trump has come out against masks, at least when they're being worn by protestors. He posted on social media last month that demonstrators wearing masks should be arrested. Given all that cultural context, it's even more problematic that those enforcing laws be the ones with their faces covered, said Tobias Winright, professor of moral theology at St. Patrick's Pontifical University in Maynooth, Ireland. He has worked in law enforcement in the U.S. and writes frequently about policing ethics. If 'what you're doing is above board and right," he said, 'then why conceal your identity?' Power gives different symbols different meanings For those who question why it's different for law enforcement to wear masks if protestors and non-law enforcement personnel are doing it, it's because symbols have different meanings based on the power and position of the people using them, said Alison Kinney, author of 'Hood,' a book about that clothing item and the various ways people have used it. 'ICE agents are agents of the state. and they're invested with not only power but also with protections in carrying out their job,' she said. 'But that job is also supposed to be public service. It's also supposed to be accountable and responsible to the public." 'And so they have a greater responsibility for transparency and accountability and making themselves known so that we can hold them accountable for the justice or injustice of their actions,' she said. Concerns over how law enforcement is held accountable to the public have come up before. Advocates pushed for officers to wear body cameras and demanded that police officers have visible names and badge numbers. But there hasn't previously been much discussion around police masking because there isn't a history of it being done in any kind of official widespread way in the United States, outside of SWAT- or undercover-type operations, Winright said. The most high-profile example of mask-wearing in American history for the purpose of hiding identity is also its most negative one — racist attacks carried out by the members of the Ku Klux Klan. The masks served a purpose, of course, of keeping the wearers' identities secret, said Elaine Frantz, a history professor at Kent State University and author of 'Ku-Klux: The Birth of the Klan during Reconstruction.' But they also made it easier for those wearing them to commit violent acts against others, she said. 'One thing about a mask is it kind of works like being behind a riot shield,' Frantz said. 'When you have more of separation from the person you're attacking, it's easier to dehumanize that person.' Winright said he hoped law enforcement mask-wearing wouldn't be normalized. There has been at least one expansion into local policing. In Nassau County, on Long Island just outside New York City, County Executive Bruce Blakeman last week signed an executive order allowing police officers to wear masks during certain types of work, including working with immigration agents. Winright is concerned, though, that the move could strain police-community relations even more, thus putting officers at even more risk. 'Wearing a mask seems to increase fear and decrease trust, and policing from federal to local in America needs trust and transparency and community relations that are positive,' he said. He added: 'The harms, the risks, are greater by wearing masks, not only to the individual officers, but to the profession itself, as well as to the United States society. It's just going to further exacerbate the us-versus-them polarization, the lack of trust, and that's the probably the last thing we need right now.'
Daily Mail
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Is Trump's ‘personal Gestapo' turning America into a police state? US president's heavily armed shock troops behind raids on illegal migrants will soon outnumber the FBI
Clad head to toe in combat gear, including body armour, helmets and face masks, and backed by armoured personnel carriers, a helicopter, 90 National Guard soldiers and a line of horsemen, dozens of heavily armed federal immigration agents descended on Los Angeles last week in an intimidating show of force. The military cavalcade advanced menacingly through the city's MacArthur Park – dubbed the 'Ellis Island of the West Coast' after New York's historic migrant processing centre – on Monday, in a so-called 'immigration enforcement operation' codenamed Operation Excalibur.
Washington Post
07-07-2025
- Sport
- Washington Post
Boxing great Julio César Chávez defends son arrested by US immigration agents
MEXICO CITY — As a professional, Julio César Chávez fought 115 times in the ring. Now, the former world champion said he was ready to fight outside of it to defend his same-name son, who was arrested by U.S. immigration agents at his Los Angeles home for overstaying his visa and lying on a green card application.
