A 56-year-old father of five who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and reportedly has no criminal record was kicked and arrested at gunpoint by federal agents outside his Wilmington home over the weekend.
The incident unfolded on Sept. 12 as Jose Campollo returned home after dropping his grandson off at school, his family told KTLA.
A federal agent wearing a tactical vest and armed with what appeared to be an assault-style rifle jumps out of a vehicle just as Campollo parked his truck and walked to the gate outside his home.
Home surveillance cameras captured the moment as Campollo seemingly tried to talk to the agent who was screaming at him, presumably telling him to get on the ground. When his wife, who was frantically calling for help from behind the fenced property tried to open the gate for Campollo, the agent delivered a kick to the 56-year-old’s midsection, knocking him a few steps back.
Another agent appears from behind Campollo, eventually taking him from the front of the house where he was later handcuffed and escorted away.
Furious, one of Campollo’s sons filmed the ordeal from the sidewalk on his cellphone, another federal agent working to keep him back, as he relentlessly screamed for a warrant, which the law enforcement officials didn’t appear to have or did not present.
“I saw my dad being handcuffed with my brother next to him,” Beatriz Campollo, the 56-year-old’s adult daughter, told KTLA. “Then I saw when they took him, and I just started crying in the car. I didn’t know what to do.”
She worries about her family falling apart. Just two months ago her brother, another of Campollo’s children, was arrested and deported.
Originally from Guatemala, the 56-year-old, who family members described as hardworking, never officially applied for citizenship. They believe it was a wrongful 1994 arrest, which was dismissed, that put him on the Department of Homeland Security’s radar.
According to Beatriz, getting an immigration attorney has been difficult because there are so many cases that many lawyers are not taking new clients.
Campollo’s arrest comes just days after the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily ruled that federal immigration authorities can continue their roving enforcement raids in L.A. and seven other California counties. For now at least, they are free to stop people based on their race, ethnicity and the language they speak.
Alma Rosa Nieto, an immigration attorney who spoke with KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff, said the battle between the City of Los Angeles and the Trump administration is now in the hands of a federal district court judge and until the ruling is issued, suggests people carry any and all documentation with them at all times.
“Anything related to an arrest that has been solved and purged or dismissed or vacated or even convicted, if it was a minor offense, they should have the documents,” she explained. “Unfortunately, sometimes the records that ICE bases these arrests on are not updated.”
As for Campollo, he’s currently being held at a detention center in San Bernardino County and what happens next is unclear.
Beatriz is hoping the family can get her father home while he waits for a judge to decide his fate.
“I’m trying to hold on and be strong because they’re depending on me now,” she said. “But sometimes, I feel like it’s too much.”
KTLA has reached out DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the arrest and is awaiting a response.
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