An ICE-watch observer who witnessed the incident unfold on 21 October told the Guardian that masked ICE agents approached Zepeda from behind, pinned him face-down on the ground and put him in a car. The agents then drove the student around for a while before letting him out. With a black eye and his wrist in severe pain, Zepeda walked the remaining half mile to his school, where staff called an ambulance.
The observer, who volunteers with a local rapid response network to document ICE activity, asked not to be named due to fears of retaliation from federal officials. To independently verify the observer’s account, the Guardian reviewed dashcam and phone videos that the observer recorded of the incident.
Local activists and US lawmakers are calling the ordeal the latest example of ICE brutality.
“ICE’s assault and wrongful detainment of Erik Zepeda was grotesque and heartbreaking,” said Adam Schiff, a Democratic US senator from California, in a statement to the Guardian. “There must be accountability for what happened to Erik.”
They act like marshall law
Martial. But yes.
I reckon ICE’s violence is a part of why republicans got trounced in the election. I hope that ICE can be effectively checked by the new congress.
I want the entirety of DHS disbanded and the agencies returned to their proper spot. Send Coast Guard back to the military, SS to the treasury…and of course unwind everything the god-damned Nazis did
Absolutely, it was.
The GOP assumed that they had a mandate to reboot the Gestapo, but while the people wanted an immigration crackdown, voters on both teams were radicalized by the horrors that ICE was committing: killing people, chasing down children in the street, making migrant women suck their dicks in port-a-potties, wearing masks and rounding people up in unmarked cars, etc.
I remember Republican-aligned protesters being interviewed on the news back in December, talking about how this wasn’t what they voted for. That was the first time I knew that Donald and the GOP were going to get their asses kicked in the mid-terms no matter what they tried.
And they never went after businesses hiring undocumented immigrants.
It’s important to remember that our Democratic leaders’ response to all this was to fund DHS and issue sternly-worded letters that Donald likely just wiped his ass with. And those same two leaders are acting as if they’ll be majority leaders in Congress next year.
So if you’re excited right now, might be best to temper your expectations.
LA, Portland, Chicago, and Minneapolis showed we can still have a little faith in people, though, so there’s that.
We need massive and sustained protest in DC, people need to occupy the area around the Capitol and make Dems afraid of the people who just elected them
People need to demolish deathcamps here and now.
But we really know how Nazis Klanmen are.
100% this. Hold them to what the voters want, not what the representatives want.
It’s a nice thought, but I don’t see that happening.
The people who are spending their days keeping an eye on these fucking thugs are goddamn heroes.
As your LEADER I Promise to do NOTHING and THATS why I know you’ll Support Me!
-LITERALLY Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer!
The letterwriting will now commence in earnest.
A mentally disabled high school student.
This is a fucking child. These people are monsters.
