Two men were detained in Santa Ana on Sunday afternoon by what appeared to be masked federal agents.
It incident happened around 2:30 p.m. at the intersection of Warner Ave. and Main St., according to KTLA.
Video posted on Instagram by user @ocactive_ and obtained by the outlet showed agents hovering over one man, while another man was pushed to the ground and repeatedly hit with a baton. An agent holding a baton is seen telling people to stand by while cars are heard honking in the background.
Another video posted by @ocactive_ shows a woman confronting the officer with a baton, calling him a “coward” and telling him to “take off your mask.”
Juan Jose Guiterrez, executive director of the Full Rights for Immigrants Coalition, told KNX News’ Jon Baird the incident was disturbing.
“I mean, why are these individuals treated as anything less than a person that's supposed to have violated an immigration law, which is not a criminal act in itself,” he said.
He also said it’s possible the agents in the video were not federal agents themselves.
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“There is absolutely no doubt that the individuals, private citizens, are being either deputized, but playing the role of immigration agents and actually hunting down the persons arrested,” he said.
Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento tld Baird the incident is something they’re seing more and more of.
“It looks like there's just some very pointed detentions and abductions of folks in a very, very aggressive and using quite a bit of excessive force and violating people's civil rights,” he said.
KNX News has reached out to Homeland Security to try to determine what happened at that intersection and whether federal agents were involved.
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