Woman records video of ICE officers arresting neighbor: 'She has children'
A woman captured a video of her experience trying to stop ICE officers from arresting her neighbor by asking to see a judge’s signature on their warrant, to no avail.
Alicia Rivera posted the video to Facebook on Sunday. She can repeatedly be heard saying, “It’s not signed by the judge,” and “You should not be arresting this woman.” According to her video, her neighbor was arrested “feet away from her car,” on the street outside her home in Los Angeles, C.A.
“We are her neighbors,” she says in the video. “We care, we care, we care. She has children.”
The ACLU says individuals should ask ICE officers “if they have a warrant signed by a judge,” in a scenario taking place at a person’s home. “Do not open your door unless ICE shows you a judicial search or arrest warrant naming a person in your residence and/or areas to be searched at your address.”
It is unclear whether the ICE officers had a signed warrant in this case, but Rivera’s video only shows an officer holding a document titled “Enforcement and Removal Operations.”
The video also indicates that the ICE officers left her car in the middle of the road, with a door open, after arresting her.
“That is horrendous,” Rivera says in the video. “And they just leave the car she was driving on the street.”
Another person is seen besides Rivera, and tells ICE agents in the video that the arrests they’re making are “immoral actions — they’re wrong, even though they’re sanctioned by the state,” he says. “You guys are hurting people.”
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, director of communications at the Coalition for Humane Rights, CHIRLA, tells Yahoo Lifestyle that the woman is being held at Adelanto Detention Center, which is located in Adelanto, Calif.
“We are not officially representing her yet. Our attorneys did meet with her at Adelanto and we interviewed her at length,” he says. “We are still determining what type of assistance we can give and what she would like to do.”
He adds that ICE is a “rogue agency” and this incident is representative of what families in the U.S. have to go through “anywhere and at any time.”
“ICE continues to detain and deport undocumented immigrants and most of the time does it without consideration of how rooted the person is in the community, whether they have U.S.-born young children, and the fact these folks do not represent a threat to the community,” Cabrera says.
CHIRLA declined to provide any additional information about the woman’s case
While Alicia Rivera did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment, her video indicates that she also took issue with the fact that the ICE officers arrived in unmarked vehicles.
“These people don’t even have a placard on their cars showing that they are from ICE,” she said. “Look. Two vans and they don’t have a placard from any institution or agency.”
Representatives from ICE did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment.
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