LOS ANGELES — A U.S. citizen who was apprehended during an ICE operation at a Los Angeles Home Depot has been released. He is now recounting his experience.
Job Garcia was documenting an ICE raid on video in Hollywood when he unexpectedly became a target. The 37-year-old U.S. citizen was tackled and taken into custody.
“You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it,” an agent can be heard saying on the video.
“The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my neck. I thought like, ‘Is this it for me?'” Garcia told Eyewitness News.
Other witnesses captured the violent takedown on video, and it quickly went viral.
The incident occurred on Thursday as Garcia was recording ICE agents who were detaining individuals outside Home Depot in Hollywood. Many witnesses, Garcia included, were shouting at the officers as they focused on a man in a truck, breaking his window.
“A split second after that is when he lunged at me. 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 recalled.
Garcia, who is a PhD student at Claremont Graduate University, said the officers seemed surprised when he told them he was a U.S. citizen. He says he was first taken to a holding area at Dodger Stadium, where he heard agents boasting about how many people they had grabbed.
“Like, ‘How many bodies did you guys get today?’ And one of them said 31, and they started like, ‘Yay! It was a good day today.’ And they were like, high-fiving each other,” Garcia said.
He said the officers also debated about what they could charge him with.
“At first it was assault of a federal agent, but only later, the narrative started switching because the video was out,” Garcia said.
After 24 hours, Garcia was released. He said if his violent arrest by numerous officers gave others a window of opportunity, then it was all worth it.
“However long period that was, if an undocumented person ran away and got away and got to get to his family, and got to get to his pregnant wife, then I’m OK with that,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he doesn’t know if he will be charged with any crime. He said he was only told that someone would be in touch. What he does know is that he plans to take legal action for the violation of his civil rights.
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