Daughter disputes ICE account, says father was tased and pinned
A U.S. citizen was injured after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained him in Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday, prompting Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson to file a formal complaint with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General demanding an independent investigation. The man was later identified as Ricardo Gonzalez.
The incident comes amid heightened scrutiny of ICE detention practices following a ProPublica report published Oct. 6 that documented 506 American citizens detained by the agency since President Donald Trump took office last year.
Long Beach police were called to the scene Saturday to provide backup to ICE, the department said. Federal officials told officers that their vehicles were being vandalized and that a person was “in need of medical attention,” according to a police statement. Officers found a bleeding, handcuffed man and transported him first to a nearby fire station for first aid, then to a hospital, police said.
Gonzalez’s daughter, Leslie Gonzalez, said in an Instagram post that her father was riding an e-bike when he was hit by an unmarked vehicle. She told The New York Times that her father is a U.S. citizen but declined to provide further details out of fear for her family’s safety. In her post, she said ICE tased her father and pinned him to the ground.
Images and video posted to social media show Gonzalez pinned face-first to the ground with his arms restrained behind his back. In the footage, he can be heard saying “My arm is broken, stop!” and asking for medical assistance as officers handcuffed him.
The vandalism allegation cited by ICE was unclear.
In the complaint, Richardson wrote that Gonzalez had contacted the Long Beach Police Department seeking assistance during a confrontation with federal immigration agents near 56th Street and Elm Avenue. “During the encounter, he reportedly was subjected to repeated Taser use, forcibly restrained and sustained significant injuries. Federal agents reportedly failed to provide medical assistance,” the mayor wrote. The complaint included a 21-question addendum of items the city wants answered.
“I am outraged by the reported treatment of Mr. Gonzalez,” Richardson wrote. “A federal badge is not a license to brutalize people, disregard their constitutional rights, or deny medical assistance to someone in need. No one is above the law, including the agents entrusted with enforcing it.”
At a Monday press conference, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., called the arrest “incredibly disturbing.” “There is no reporting that he was doing anything wrong, no public reporting,” Garcia said. “Certainly, I have not received any information from our own police department that he was somehow causing some sort of criminal activity.”
Another video filmed in Long Beach shows a woman being arrested while her husband shouted nearby that she is a U.S. citizen, The New York Times reported. No further details were available about that arrest.
On Monday, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., introduced legislation making it easier to sue federal agencies for wrongful arrest.