Geoff Bennett:
California authorities are calling for an investigation into the actions of federal immigration agents after they allegedly injured and arrested a U.S. citizen last weekend.
William Brangham is aware of the growing number of Americans who are caught up in the administration’s coercive actions.
William Brangham:
The incident in question occurred on Saturday in Long Beach, California. The video shows the moment Ricardo Gonzalez, a U.S. citizen, rides an electric bike and then is arrested next to an unmarked ICE vehicle. It is unclear whether the vehicle hit him or not. He was later seen handcuffed face down on the ground, screaming.
Ricardo Gonzalez, detained by ICE:
My arm is broken. Help me. Help me. My arm is (EXPLETIVE DELETED) broken. My arm is (EXPLETIVE DELETED) broken. My arm is broken. That (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hurts!
William Brangham:
Gonzalez was then transported to the hospital and treated for serious injuries. ICE says Gonzalez was arrested because he was participating in a riot and damaged a government vehicle.
The details of Gonzalez’s detention come as a new investigation by ProPublica found that more than 500 U.S. citizens have been caught in the ongoing immigration dragnet.
For more, we’re joined by ProPublica’s Nicole Foy, who was one of the reporters in this series.
Nicole, thank you very much for being here.
Is this incident we saw reported in California over the weekend the type of case you’re documenting in your reporting?
Nicole Foy, ProPublica:
That’s absolutely the case, primarily because we’ve seen citizens being detained by immigration agents for a variety of reasons across the country and sometimes in very similar situations like this, where maybe there was a protest nearby or maybe just an unexpected encounter between a U.S. citizen in the neighborhood where they lived and immigration agents, who have really widened their network and the number of people they’re trying to detain.
And sometimes these two people collide, literally in this case. And among the more than 500 people we have found detained so far, we have identified many citizens who were also very seriously injured after their clashes.
William Brangham:
I mean, DHS, as you reported in your series, repeatedly says that it does not detain or arrest American citizens, despite what your reporting shows.
When you say that U.S. citizens are being detained, as you have documented, who are the people being detained and what are the other circumstances surrounding their cases?
Nicole Foy:
Yes, it’s a mix of people.
Sometimes, these are people whom immigration officials accuse of assaulting or interfering with immigration operations. Sometimes it seems that way. And other times there are testimonies or images that really contradict that narrative.
But there were also many, many people who were arrested because of questions about their citizenship, that they were on a construction site and didn’t speak English very well, or that they were — there were questions about whether they were also here in the United States without papers. We saw people detained in various ways.
William Brangham:
What happens once these people are arrested? I mean, are formal charges being filed? It seems like if ICE realizes you have a US citizen in custody, you would think that would be the end of it.
Nicole Foy:
Yes, some people who have been accused of — who have been arrested based on allegations of assault have been charged with assault, but we have found that many of them still have not been charged with assault to this day, even though authorities are releasing statements accusing them of that.
We also found dozens of people detained for several days, including at least 24 hours, without being able to access their phones, their lawyers, or contact their families and let them know where they were. So some people had a very brief detention, for maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes while they were handcuffed on the side of the road.
But other people disappeared in a system that was actually very difficult for their loved ones and their lawyers to find, and at the same time they were sometimes seriously injured.
William Brangham:
You shared much of your reporting, including the videos you compiled, with former immigration officials to gauge their reaction. What did they tell you about what you discovered?
Nicole Foy:
They were truly shocked by what they saw. These are people who – two public servants in particular that I’m thinking of, retired quite recently.
And they said that, first of all, they had never seen this many encounters with American citizens, let alone this level of detention, and that — they really called a lot of the use of force, the apparent reason or probable cause of the stops, really troubling, because it wasn’t — it didn’t seem like the officers were following what they thought they should have been trained to do.
William Brangham:
Are there any constitutional protections for Americans in these kinds of circumstances? And, if so, have enforcement actions been taken against officers who may have been accused or found guilty of wrongdoing?
Nicole Foy:
Yes, I mean, everyone in the United States has constitutional protections, whether you’re an immigrant or a U.S. citizen.
But what our reporting has uncovered, particularly when you look at these detentions and arrests of U.S. citizens, are really very disturbing examples of possible violations of citizens’ Fourth Amendment, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, whether it’s charges of racial profiling or charges of using truly excessive force during arrest.
But we also found hundreds of people arrested because they were participating in a demonstration. We found a lot of people who were just filming when they were arrested, and they think that’s why they were arrested. The government may not agree, but it believes its First Amendment rights have also been violated in this way.
William Brangham:
ProPublica’s Nicole Foy, thank you very much for sharing your reporting with us.
Nicole Foy:
Thank you for having me.
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