An Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation inside a medical clinic earlier this week grew heated as staff attempted to come to the defense of an undocumented man seeking shelter inside the facility.
The July 8 incident unfolded inside the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center after 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers, who were working outside the building, were targeted by federal immigration officers in masks and bulletproof vests.
Javier Hernandez, who is with the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said the agents never identified themselves.
“They basically just started running after him,” he explained. “[Solis] then ran inside of the clinic where they were working to seek shelter.”
In a video of the tense confrontation, staff in scrubs can be heard and seen telling the agents to leave, that they were trespassing on private property without a warrant and that they needed to take their hands off the 30-year-old.
Two agents, one on either side of a doorway at the clinic, both of whom had their faces covered, were attempting to detain Solis as he clung to the doorway frame, desperately trying to hold on, while weeping.
Hernandez told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo that clinic staff were asking the agents to present identification, a badge or a warrant, but that they never did.
It’s not the first time federal immigration agents have been seen refusing to identify themselves or using physically aggressive tactics since enforcement operations began in L.A. County in early June.
On June 29, multiple agents were seen struggling with a man in Santa Ana in the middle of the street while one of the federal officers repeatedly struck him with a baton. That incident occurred less than two miles from where another landscaper, the father of three active-duty Marines, was struck multiple times before being taken into custody. In that instance, officials with the Department of Homeland Security claimed the man assaulted officers with a weed trimmer.
In a statement to KTLA about Tuesday’s incident at the surgery center, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said:
“ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bulletproof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle. One of the illegal aliens, Denis Guillen-Solis who is from Honduras, fled on foot to evade law enforcement. He ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center where hospital staff assaulted law enforcement and drug the officer and illegal alien into the facility. Then, the staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping.’”
It’s unclear if any of the staff members at Ontario Advanced Surgery Center will face federal charges.
Hernandez told KTLA that clinic staff locked the door before two other agents arrived, and that when the agents realized the door was locked, they tried to break the door.
“This is really scary,” Hernandez said. “We’re seeing an overreach by the federal government. Every day we are seeing them try new tactics and if we are not pushing back, we are not fighting back, what we are seeing is the end of our democracy.”
As for Solis, whose family has organized a GoFundMe to help with the cost of legal fees, he is being held downtown at the federal detention center.
The post ICE detains man, 30, inside Ontario surgery center in heated confrontation appeared first on KTLA.
