When Arturo Hermosillo saw his neighborhood tamales vendor on the ground last week, he quickly pulled over his work van to see what was wrong. In the parking lot of Lowe’s and Costco shopping complex in Pacoima, she was in distress, surrounded by United States Border Patrol agents, the law enforcement arm of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
He started to record.
Hermosillo, 36, is now facing potential federal charges for trying to document Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in his community.
He was recording the incident from his work van when CBP agents told him to move his vehicle to give space for the ambulance, which was called to help the tamales vendor. Hermosillo complied, but he said he accidentally bumped a vehicle that was behind him while reversing. He continued recording even though agents began hitting his window, turning his mirror inward and hitting his van, he said.
Hermosillo yelled at the agents, calling them “Nazis,” after which they proceeded to open the door and drag him out of the vehicle.
“I told them I’m not doing anything illegal,” said Hermosillo. “That’s when they put [their] hands on [me]. We struggled for a really long time, and at the end, they started pulling my hair, hitting my arms, you know. I’m all bruised up. My back is bruised up.”
A cell phone recording by another bystander showed several agents forcefully removing Hermosillo from the driver’s seat, then grabbing his neck, upper body and legs, before pushing him to the ground, putting a knee in his back and handcuffing him.
“I still have marks from the handcuffs because of how tight they were,” said Hermosillo, revealing the injuries on his wrists four days later. “My hands were blue by the time they took the handcuffs off.
“I was preparing for the worst,” said Hermosillo, after being told by the CBP officers that he was being arrested.
He was placed in an unmarked white van before being taken to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) building in downtown Los Angeles, where he remained for several hours before being released later that day.
“They [CBP] were taunting me,” he continued. “Telling me that I was going to stay there. That I’m never getting out. Saying ‘this is not a joke. You better get a good lawyer.’”
Hermosillo said DHS officials later told him that while he wasn’t arrested, just detained, he was under investigation for interfering with federal agents and could face up to six years in federal prison if convicted. He said he was instructed not to leave LA County for the next six months while the investigation is taking place.
Hermosillo is frustrated, insisting that he suffered an unjust detainment that infringed upon his First Amendment right, which allows him to photograph or film anything in plain view in public spaces.
“We’re tired of them [ICE] coming into our communities,” said Hermosillo, who was born in Sylmar and grew up in Van Nuys. “They’re trying to scare us. They’re trying to normalize this. They’re trying to make it okay that they come and pick anyone up as long as you’re Brown.”
When hardworking people are being kidnapped, he said, the community needs to stand up and try to protect them.
“We have to resist. We can’t just stay quiet,” Hermosillo exclaimed. “The way we’re going to beat this is the community coming together. We keep each other safe.”
White people will get hate.