CommentsICE RAID, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL—(Editor’s note: Numerous similar ICE raids are occurring regularly in our own SoCal backyard.) A woman in southern California repeatedly told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that her seven children were present and demanded to see their warrant as they forced their way—guns drawn and using heavy shields—into the family's home.
The agents were attempting to arrest Brianna Alonso's husband, Alberto Alonso-Hernandez, using a crowbar to pry open the home's back door. The agents had their guns drawn and began screaming at the family after entering the house. (Photo above: A woman and her children in National City, Calif. demanded to see ICE agents' arrest warrant when they raided the family's home looking for the woman's husband. The ICE agents mocked the woman's request. (Photo: @UniNoticias/Twitter/screenshot)
When Alonso asked to see their warrant, one of the ICE agents said, "Ma'am, you're watching too much movies. We'll show you the warrant when we're done."
The couple's 11-year-old daughter also demanded that the agents present their warrant, and filmed the incident with a cell phone.
Watch:
"I don't want my kids to see the guns," Alonso toldABC 10 Newsin San Diego. "I see already from the window...they're coming with guns. I don't want my kids to see nothing like that."
Alonso-Hernandez is an undocumented immigrant who had returned to the U.S. to rejoin his family after being deported, Alonso told reporters. ICE claims he has re-entered the country 16 times, but the San Diego News Tribunereportsthat the agency's request for an arrest warrant for him cited only two deportations.
"He came here to the United States when he was 13 years old," she said.
The incident follows a similar case in New York, when a farmer foundat least seven armed ICE agents pinning one of his employees, Marcial de Leon Aguilar, up against a wall and handcuffing him while his children were present. The farmer demanded to see paperwork regarding the arrest, but the agents refused.
"ICE needs a warrant. If they go on someone's property without one, they are violating the law," immigration law expert and Cornell law professor Stephen Yale-Loehr told Syracuse.comafter Aguilar's arrest.
The ACLU of Southern California advises the public to ask to see a warrant should immigration authorities come to their home.
"You are not legally required to let them in unless they have a warrant," reads the group's guide. "A warrant of removal/deportation (ICE warrant) does not allow officers to enter a home without consent."
(This video and report was posted earlier at the excellent Common Dreams and used with ‘Creative Commons’ license.)
-cw