A US Marine Corps veteran said he was shocked to see a video on social media of his father, a landscaper in Southern California, being beaten by masked US Border Patrol officers as he was pinned to the ground during an immigration arrest, the AP reports. The Saturday arrest of Narciso Barranco, who came to the US from Mexico in the 1990s but does not have legal status, is the latest to capture widespread attention as the crackdown on immigration by President Trump's administration draws scrutiny and protests. He's reportedly in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but his son was not able to see him at a detention center Monday despite waiting more than three hours.
Witnesses uploaded videos of the arrest in Santa Ana, a city in Orange County between San Diego and Los Angeles. No footage showed the entire incident from start to finish as agents struggled with Barranco outside an IHOP restaurant. The Department of Homeland Security said Barranco refused to comply with commands and swung his weed trimmer at an agent. Alejandro Barranco said his father did not attack anyone, had no criminal record, and is kind and hardworking. He said the use of force was unnecessary and differed greatly from his military training. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, another Marine Corps veteran says ICE detained his wife last month during an immigration-related appointment, the AP reports.
Paola Clouatre, a 25-year-old Mexican national whose mother brought her into the country seeking asylum more than a decade ago, married Adrian Clouatre, 26, last year, and was in the process of applying for a green card when she was taken into custody. The couple has a 2-year-old son and a 3-month-old daughter, who Paola was still breastfeeding when she was detained. "It's just a hell of a way to treat a veteran," says Carey Holliday, a former immigration judge who is now representing the couple. "You take their wives and send them back to Mexico?" The Clouatres filed a motion for a California-based immigration judge to reopen the case on Paola's deportation order and are waiting to hear back, Holliday said. (More mass deportations stories.)