By JANIE HAR, San Francisco , (AP):- Federal immigration agents seeking to detain a Honduran landscaper chased him into a Southern California surgical center and quickly found themselves in a tense standoff as clinic staff demanded to see identification and a warrant.
In a video clip of the Tuesday altercation that has spread on social media, Ontario Advanced Surgery Center staff in blue scrubs are heard telling an armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent wearing a mask and bulletproof vest to let go of the man, who is crying and gasping for breath.
“Get your hands off of him. You don’t even have a warrant,” says one staff member, shielding the man from an immigration agent. “Let him go. You need to get out.”
ICE has become much more public in detaining migrants, now going into immigration courts and workplaces to cuff people and take them away. This week, the bishop of San Bernardino formally excused Catholic parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend Mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese, which includes Ontario.
The Department of Homeland Security posted on the social platform X that officers in Ontario were conducting a targeted operation to arrest two men who were in the country illegally when one of the men, identified as a 30-year-old from Honduras, fled on foot.
The department said the surgery center staff “assaulted law enforcement” and attempted to obstruct the arrest. The private surgery center, which is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, did not respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said agents eventually arrested the Honduran man, and advocates do not know where he is. He was sending money to Honduras to help his mother with her dialysis treatments, Hernandez said.
He said he doubts it was a targeted operation as ICE claims because agents also questioned two co-workers until learning they both had legal status, one as a U.S. citizen and the other as a permanent resident.
Hernandez called the clinic’s staffers brave for asking basic questions as these detentions play out more frequently in public, even inside a private medical office. It’s painful to watch the footage, he said.
“There’s so many videos now that are out there,” he said. “It’s getting harder … because the tactics are getting more violent.”
Also this week, ICE officers exited an immigration courthouse in San Francisco and loaded a handcuffed man into a black SUV. Video captured protestors clinging to the hood of the vehicle as agents tried to drive away. The driver got away after speeding up, shedding the one remaining person hanging to the car.