Jason Brian Gavidia is a proud American. He even has the first words to the Constitution—“We the people”—tattooed in large black lettering across his back.
He voted for President Donald Trump. Then, he was stopped by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. And now he has changed his mind.
“I am American, bro!” Gavidia, 29, protested as two masked, rifle-toting immigration agents held him against the wall, asking for proof of his citizenship. The ICE agents had stopped him and his friend, Javier Ramirez, 32, another U.S. citizen, as they walked the streets of Montebello, a majority-Latino city east of Los Angeles.
“What hospital were you born?” one agent barked at Gavidia. “I don’t know, dawg!” he said. “East L.A., bro!” Ramirez recorded the altercation on his phone before Ramirez himself was wrestled to the ground and driven to a detention center.
Via Brittny Mejia / LA Times: ‘Brian Gavidia told us he was stopped by a Border Patrol agent in Montebello and despite telling him he was American, was pushed against this fence. He said he gave his real ID to the agent and never got it back. CBP did not explain what happened here. Here’s video his friend took’
Posted by MeidasTouch on Friday, June 13, 2025
“I believe I was racially profiled. I believe I was attacked because I was walking while Brown,” Gavidia told NBC Los Angeles.
Gavidia, shaken by the experience, has pivoted his political views. Though he was once a Trump supporter, Gavidia now condemns the Trump administration’s immigration raids. “He ran on lies,” Gavidia told NBC. “We were all manipulated, we were all brainwashed, and now look at us. We’re all suffering because of it. And I feel guilty 100 percent.”
“Where’s the freedom? Where’s the justice?” Gavidia said, waving a pocket constitution he now carries with him. “That’s why I’m protecting the constitution.”
Gavidia is now one of the plaintiffs named in a class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against the Trump administration. NBC Los Angeles reported that the lawsuit resulted in a court order protecting individuals in seven Southern California counties from being arrested by federal agents due to their race, accent, or place of work.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security and the White House for comment.
Now, Gavidia says he is repenting for his voting history by holding “Know Your Rights” workshops and by distributing cards to immigrants that inform them of their rights when interacting with federal agents.
Gavidia is not the first Trump supporter that the administration has targeted, and will likely not be the last.
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