US citizen caught in ICE raid says arrest was value it if others received away | EUROtoday

A U.S. citizen who was violently arrested in a California ICE raid and detained for twenty-four hours mentioned it was all value it if an undocumented particular person was ready to make use of that second to flee.

Job Garcia, a 37-year-old PhD scholar at Claremont Graduate University, was arrested throughout an ICE raid final Thursday at a Home Depot in Hollywood, ABC 7 reported.

Video captured an ICE agent telling Garcia, who’s a U.S. citizen, “You want to go to jail? Fine, you got it.”

Garcia recalled the horrifying second he was positioned into custody by the officer: “The pressure of like, the knee on my back, and his hand on my neck, I thought like ‘Is this it for me?’”

Footage of the violent arrest, which got here as ICE brokers detained about 30 folks on the retailer, rapidly went viral.

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Before he was detained, Garcia and a number of other different buyers have been yelling on the officers as they focused a person in a truck by smashing his window.

“A split second after that is when he lunged at me. I was still recording, so he pushes me, puts both hands on me, and I pushed his hand off. And then, he didn’t like that, so he grabbed my left hand,” Garcia mentioned.

Garcia mentioned the officers appeared stunned when he instructed them he was a U.S. citizen, however they nonetheless determined to arrest him. He was first taken to a holding space at Dodger Stadium, the place he overheard brokers discussing how many individuals they’d grabbed.

“Like, ‘How many bodies did you guys get today?’ And one of them said 31, and they started like, ‘Yay! It was a good day today.’ And they were like, high-fiving each other,” Garcia mentioned.

Garcia mentioned he additionally overheard officers speaking about potential expenses they might slap him with.

“At first it was assault of a federal agent, but only later, the narrative started switching because the video was out,” Garcia mentioned.

Some 24 hours later, Garcia was lastly launched. Despite the circumstances, he instructed ABC 7 it could have been effectively value it if it gave undocumented migrants a window of alternative to flee and discover their households.

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“However long period that was, if an undocumented person ran away and got away and got to get to his family, and got to get to his pregnant wife, then I’m OK with that,” he mentioned.

It was not instantly clear whether or not Garcia can be charged with any crime, though he instructed ABC 7 he plans to take authorized motion for the violation of his civil rights.

Anti-ICE demonstrations have unfold throughout the U.S. after taking off in California earlier this month following raids of workplaces.

The variety of folks and not using a legal document being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers and held in detention has jumped 800 % since January, as officers face strain to spice up numbers, in line with studies.

This uptick has resulted in 51,302 folks being imprisoned in ICE facilities as of the beginning of June, marking the primary time that detention facilities held over 50,000 immigrants directly.

Less than a 3rd of these detained are convicted criminals, with the rest pending legal expenses or arrested for non-criminal immigration offenses, reminiscent of overstaying a visa or unauthorized entry to the nation.

The newest knowledge is from June 1, printed by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Since January, when the Trump administration entered workplace, ICE has not printed clear and official figures on arrests or deportations.