The illegality of ICE
Immigration agents fired three rounds at a party-supply owner driving his son to a water-slide delivery — then charged HIM and left him in ICE detention for MONTHS.
Francisco Longoria has run a party-supply business in San Bernardino, California, and had been building a life there for 23 years. On the morning of August 16, he was driving his son and son-in-law to drop off a jumper for a water slide when three unmarked vehicles boxed him in and four masked men jumped out with guns drawn. The passengers grabbed their phones to record. "I see what happens in Mexico," Longoria said. "I thought, are we going to be kidnapped by these masked men?"
The agents had no warrant. When Longoria didn't roll down his window, one smashed the glass and hit him in the face. He hit the gas. As he drove off, an agent fired three rounds, one barely missing the back window. From the back seat, his son-in-law Daniel Rascon thought: "One of us is about to get killed."
CBP's own use-of-force policy tells officers not to shoot at a vehicle that is merely fleeing.
DHS said Longoria "drove his truck at the officers" and struck two of them, forcing an officer to fire in self-defense. Video from inside the truck and a nearby business shows no agents or vehicles in his path as he drove away.
Weeks later in court, prosecutors admitted they couldn't identify a lawful basis for the stop and had NO evidence any officer was injured.
That admission didn't stop them from coming for him. Longoria drove home and called 911, thinking police would help. Instead, local officers arrested him, later releasing him because he had no criminal record. Then at 4:19am on August 28, agents in helmets and night-vision goggles surrounded the house while the family slept, breaking through two doors and pointing rifles at them. Longoria says they were told: "If you move, we will shoot you." The laser sights landed on his daughter Joana, five months pregnant. "Don't shoot, she's pregnant!" Rascon yelled.
They hauled Longoria off in a muscle shirt and shorts on a felony charge claiming he ran over two officers.
He spent months in ICE detention before the case was eventually dropped.