Army Veteran Says He Was Wrongly Detained By ICE
George Retes: US Citizen And Army Vet Says He Was ‘Wrongly Arrested And Held By ICE’ On His Way To Work
At this point, NewsOne is, on a daily basis, reporting on the activities of immigration officers, who are running wild and reckless in cities where they have been deployed by the Trump administration, and the demonstrable lies the Department of Homeland Security keeps telling to justify agents pouncing on protesters and brown people indiscriminately while in the line of duty.
Apparently, even veterans of the U.S. military aren’t immune to ending up on the receiving end of this behavior.
Meet George Retes, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who says he was detained by federal immigration officers in July while attempting to get to his place of employment near his hometown of Ventura, California.
Last month, Retes penned an op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, telling his side of the story regarding an incident earlier this year in which he was “wrongly arrested and held by ICE.”
From the op-ed:
On July 10, I headed to my security guard job at a Camarillo (Ventura County) cannabis farm, not knowing that it was being raided by federal officials looking for immigration violations.
A 25-year-old American citizen, father of two and an Army veteran who served a tour in Iraq, it didn’t occur to me that I was in any danger. As I approached the farm, a protest was underway, with cars bumper-to-bumper, and people walking along the sides of the street. Eventually, I came to a line of masked agents blocking the way.
As a contractor, if I don’t make it to my job site, I don’t get paid. I got out of my car and tried to explain that I was a U.S. citizen and an Army veteran just trying to get to my job.
They didn’t care.
When they started walking toward me, I got back in my car. But soon, they were banging on my door and gave opposing directions to “pull over to the side” and “reverse” while also trying to open my door. I was able to reverse and get out of the way, but then agents started using tear gas to dispersethe protesters, which filled up my car and left me choking.
Again, they approached the car and told me to reverse, but I couldn’t even see where I would be going. And again, agents contradicted themselves, telling me to back up and trying to open the door. Suddenly, an agent smashed my window and pepper-sprayed me. I was pulled from the car, and one agent knelt on my neck while another knelt on my back.
My wallet with my identification was in the car, but the agents refused to go look and confirm that I was a citizen. Instead, I sat in the dirt with my hands zip-tied with other detainees for four hours. When I was sitting there, I could hear agents asking each other why I had been arrested. They were unsure, but I was taken away and thrown in a jail cell anyway.
My first night in jail, my hands were burning from the pepper spray and tear gas because I was never allowed to wash them off. During the three nights and three days I was locked up and put on suicide watch, I could not make a phone call and was not given a chance to speak to a lawyer.
I missed my daughter’s third birthday party. Then I was just let go, with no charges, no explanation for why and no apology.
Retes also told his story this week in an interview with NPR, and he’s been all over social media talking about the incident and telling his followers he has filed claims under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) against federal agencies related to what he described as wrongful detention and use of excessive force.
As usual, DHS officials are telling a different story.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security published a news release titled, “DHS Debunks New York Times False Reporting: DHS Does NOT Deport U.S. Citizens,” referencing a NY Times report on Retes and several other U.S. citizens of foreign descent being wrongly detained by ICE.
From the news release:
FALSE CLAIM: George Retes was wrongly arrested and held by ICE.
THE FACTS: As U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and ICE agents were executing criminal search warrants on July 10 at the marijuana sites in Camarillo, CA, George Retes—a U.S. citizen—became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement. He challenged agents and blocked their route by refusing to move his vehicle out of the road. CBP arrested Retes for assault.
The entire release reads this way, with the author writing “FALSE CLAIM” in reference to each individual allegation of a U.S. citizen being detained, and “THE FACTS” in reference to what the DHS claims really happened.
Clearly, this MAGA-fied federal government doesn’t understand what it means to “debunk” a thing.
Much like a Christian can’t prove the Bible is the true word of God by simply quoting the Bible itself, the DHS can’t debunk allegations against the DHS’s own agents by citing a DHS report that essentially just says, “Nah, that ain’t what happened.”
Especially not this DHS:
The Department of Homeland Security, the federal department that is in charge of these federal cops, has repeatedly justified the actions of these officers by claiming without evidence that they are “under siege,” calling protesters “rioters” even when they’re not accused of doing anything that would constitute rioting, and referring to ICE detainees as “criminal illegal aliens” even when they have no criminal records to speak of, which most of them don’t.
In another recent op-ed for the newsletter Home of the Brave, Retes wrote that the DHS’s version of events “ignores reality” and amounts to the vilification of people who challenge government actions, which the Trump administration certainly knows plenty about.
“DHS’s statement ignores reality and is designed to demonize and villainize people who don’t let the government trample over their rights, and aren’t afraid to speak the truth,” he wrote.
The Trump administration would have us believe that, on a daily basis, countless protesters and residents from Chicago to California — and even federal judges — are all telling the same lies about the poor, defenseless federal immigration agents who are peacefully and professionally trying to do their jobs while under constant attack by rabid citizens.
We simply aren’t buying it — especially since the government only offers the word of the government to substantiate claims made by the government.
We don’t believe you; you need more people — who aren’t members of the damn federal government.
SEE ALSO:
ICE Arrests Julio César Chávez Jr. Following Jake Paul Bout
Pennsylvania Man Detained By ICE After Murder Exoneration
ICE Arrests Black Migrant With Green Card Over Marital Status
