Marine Corps veteran says he feels betrayed after his father was arrested by masked federal agents in Southern California

By Zoe Sottile, CNN

(CNN) — A Marine Corps veteran says he feels betrayed after his father was beaten and arrested by masked federal agents while working at his landscaping job, caught up in one of the ongoing ICE workplace raids that advocates say have left immigrant communities terrified and on edge.

Alejandro Barranco told CNN Monday that his father, Narciso Barranco, was detained by federal agents Saturday afternoon while working as a landscaper at an IHOP in Santa Ana, California. The 25-year-old Marine veteran said his father was born in Mexico and has lived in the US since the 90s. He is undocumented but has no criminal record, his son said.

“He was always a good dad,” Alejandro Barranco said. “He always made sure we had food on the table. He always taught us to respect, to love our country, to always give back.”

Video of the incident shows several masked men in tactical gear pinning Barranco to the ground and repeatedly striking him in the head and neck. Several of the men are seen wearing vests that read “US Border Patrol Police” on the back.

The men then forced Barranco into an unmarked vehicle, holding his arms behind his back, the video shows.

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin told CNN in response to an inquiry about Barranco an “illegal alien” was arrested by Border Patrol agents after he “tried to evade law enforcement.”

“The illegal alien ran, then turned and swung a weed whacker directly at an agent’s face,” said McLaughlin. “He then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent. The illegal alien refused to comply every step of the way—resisting commands, fighting handcuffs, and refusing to identify himself.”

The agency also shared a video online of Barranco holding a weed whacker, claiming he “assaulted federal law enforcement.” The video shows an officer spraying an unknown substance at Barranco, who is seen holding lawn equipment but doesn’t appear to strike officers in the footage.

Barranco is currently in ICE custody, according to McLaughlin.

His son told CNN his father likely became frightened and ran when approached by masked federal agents “with guns out.”

“He just got scared,” Alejandro Barranco said.

He said when confronted by “masked men” with “big guns,” “we’re gonna be scared and we’re also gonna try to defend ourselves, especially when they don’t identify themselves, who they are.”

Narciso Barranco had expressed fear before about the possibility of being arrested for his immigration status, according to his son. He had said, “I can’t just stop working” and felt he had “to provide for himself and for us as well,” his son said.

ICE raids at workplaces, including farms, construction sites, and food processing plants, have also become a hallmark of the immigration crackdown. Advocates say the immigration sweeps foster fear and turmoil for immigrant workers, and create economic challenges for the industries that rely on immigrant labor.

Alejandro Barranco served four years in the Marines, he told CNN. His two younger brothers are currently active duty Marines.

“It’s hard for us,” he said. “We feel hurt, we feel betrayed.”

Narciso Barranco called his son from a detention facility, asking him to pick up his landscaping tools and finish the job he had been working on when he was arrested.

“He’s very sad. He’s hurt, he’s in pain,” Alejandro Barranco said of his father during his calls from the ICE detention facility. “He said he was thirsty, he was hungry.”

His father “broke down and started crying” when he asked on a call if he was injured during the arrest, according to Alejandro Barranco.

“I don’t think the way this is going is right,” the veteran said. “I do believe in a better system. I believe that people like my dad, like my mom, like any parent or close family member of any law enforcement officer or military member, I think they should have a way easier and better access to a legal status.”

A GoFundMe campaign has been established to support the family with legal representation for Barranco.

CNN has reached out to ICE for comment.

ICE raids ‘traumatize the Santa Ana community’

Johnathan Hernandez, a Santa Ana council member with family roots in Mexico, told CNN ongoing ICE raids “traumatize” the local community.

“What we’re seeing take place before our eyes and within the phones of our screens are some of the hardest working honest people in Santa Ana being totally arrested, stripped of their constitutional rights, and stripped of due process while they’re being beaten by unidentified men,” he said in a Monday interview.

Barranco’s family is “as American as they come,” Hernandez said.

“And yet they are treating them as if they are not dedicating every bit of their life to this country.”

Mexican Americans “either helped build this country by fighting for it, or we currently have our children or our loved ones fighting for them,” the council member went on.

He described the footage of Barranco’s arrest as “one of the most extreme abuses of power we’ve seen on video.”

“This man was not breaking the law,” he said. “The only thing that ICE had on him was that he was an immigrant, but that’s not grounds for them to beat him.”

Hernandez also criticized ICE agents’ practice of wearing masks while conducting immigration raids, describing it as “absolutely horrifying.”

“It’s literally creating fear, and people don’t feel safer when they see these vehicles,” he said.

Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has said federal officers are covering their faces to protect their families after some officers and their relatives have been publicly identified and then harassed online.

But the tactic has drawn criticism from advocates and politicians, including the New York City Bar Association, which said the practice “appears to be an effort to evade accountability,” and US Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Democrat from Massachusetts, who earlier this month compared masked, plainclothes federal agents to the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Germany.

“When you compare the old films of the Gestapo grabbing people off the streets of Poland, and you compare them to those nondescript thugs… it does look like a Gestapo operation,” said Lynch, describing the detention of Rümeysa Öztürk, according to video from C-SPAN.

Hernandez said that Mexicans and Mexican Americans are “some of the hardest working examples of what America has to provide.”

“A day without Mexicans in this country is a day without America.”

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