Lawsuit claims pattern of false assault charges after federal vehicle stops
Just after 8 a.m. on Aug. 16, 2025, Francisco Longoria was driving his truck down a suburban street in San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, with his son Jonathan Longoria and son-in-law Daniel Rascon. Three unmarked vehicles stopped the truck and four masked men jumped out.
Longoria, who was born in Mexico and has lived in Southern California for 24 years, said the men did not identify themselves. They wore police gear and had their guns drawn. The passengers pulled out their phones to record.
One agent knocked on the window and told Longoria to roll it down, according to Longoria, but the agent did not have a warrant. When Longoria did not comply, the agent smashed the glass and struck him in the face. Another agent broke the front passenger’s window.
With agents on both sides of the truck and the road ahead clear, Longoria accelerated. An agent fired three rounds, leaving two bullet holes in the passenger’s side of the truck, according to the family.
The family drove home and called 911. San Bernardino police arrived and arrested Longoria. Call logs show that local police misheard federal agents and believed Longoria had returned fire at them. Officers asked if he had run anyone over, and he said no.
Local police released Longoria after checking his record — he had no criminal history — but ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents then tried to arrest him at the family home without a warrant. The family refused to open the gate, and a standoff with neighbors who gathered to support Longoria lasted several hours.
On Aug. 28 at 4:19 a.m., security cameras captured a group of federal officers in helmets, vests and night-vision goggles arriving at the home with an arrest warrant. They broke the locks on the exterior metal door and interior wooden door, pointing assault rifles at the family, Longoria said. The lasers from the guns hit Joana Longoria, Rascon’s fiancee, who was five months pregnant.
The warrant alleged Longoria had run over two officers with his vehicle, amounting to a felony charge of assault against federal officers with a dangerous weapon.
Greg Jackson, a partner at the Simon Law Group representing the family, said the raid involved “extreme levels of violence that you would see for drug dealers, narco-terrorists, criminals” — force he called unnecessary for someone with no criminal history.
At a bond hearing the same day, the U.S. attorney said he could not think of a lawful basis for the officers to stop Longoria’s truck and was not aware of any injuries to the officers. The judge, who said the videos recorded inside the truck were “quite scary,” granted Longoria bond.
Longoria was then transferred to the Adelanto ICE detention center in southern California’s high desert, a facility with a capacity of about 2,000 people. He said the food was inadequate, portions too small, and detainees were not given enough water. He estimated he lost 20 pounds. Longoria said he met people there who had been captured in the southern California immigration raids — car-wash workers, street vendors, and day laborers — and that detainees who had been injured by federal agents showed him broken hands and limbs that had not received medical attention.
The government dropped the felony charge on Sept. 17, but Longoria remained at Adelanto for a total of three months before he was released in early December.
The lawsuit, filed against the federal government and the officers involved, seeks damages for physical injury, psychological injuries including PTSD, lost wages, property damage, what it terms wrongful incarceration, public humiliation and reputational harm. The suit alleges that the officer “attempted to kill” Longoria by firing shots in violation of CBP’s use-of-force policy, which directs officers not to shoot at “a moving vehicle merely fleeing from agents” unless the agent has a reasonable belief that deadly force is being used against them.
The suit also alleges that the officers violated a temporary restraining order issued by a California judge that prohibited targeting people solely based on race, language or type of work.
In February, Rascon testified before a House and Senate hearing examining alleged abuses by DHS agents.
Longoria, who is still facing removal proceedings from the U.S., wears an ankle monitor and regularly checks in with immigration authorities. He cannot work and cares for his infant granddaughter. His lawyers are fighting to keep him in the country.
“What I have lived through, I don’t wish that upon others,” Longoria said in Spanish.