Feds And Local Authorities Scramble After ICE Opens Fire In Los Angeles
Another day, another incident in which federal immigration agents have opened fire, and the Department of Homeland Security has immediately moved to do damage control by slinging around the words “criminal illegal aliens” as often as possible, and claiming agents feared for their lives because someone was using their vehicle as a weapon.
According to ABC 7, a federal agent opened fire during an operation Wednesday morning in Willowbrook, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County located between Compton and Watts, and while not many details regarding the shooting have been revealed — outside of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reporting that Border Patrol and DHS agents were involved in the shooting near the intersection of 126th Street and Mona Boulevard.— DHS has already released a statement, emphasizing that the target of the operation was a “criminal illegal alien.”
From ABC:
In a statement provided to ABC7, Homeland Security said the targeted operation began in nearby Compton, “to arrest a violent criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, William Eduardo Moran Carballo, who is involved in a human smuggling operation and has two prior arrests for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant.”
An immigration judge issued Carballo a final order of removal in 2019, according to DHS.
“In a dangerous attempt to evade arrest, this criminal illegal alien weaponized his vehicle and rammed law enforcement,” the Homeland Security statement said. “Fearing for his life and safety, an agent fired defensive shots. The criminal illegal alien was not hit and attempted to flee on foot. He was successfully apprehended by law enforcement. The illegal alien was not injured, but a CBP officer was injured.”
Details of the officer’s injury were not provided.
Along with several federal agents in tactical gear, sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrol officers responded to the scene.
“This situation is evolving, and more information is forthcoming,” DHS said.
Look, I’m not saying that, in this instance, DHS is definitely lying — but there is a pattern here that would be difficult for a reasonable skeptic to ignore.
First, there was barely a single sentence in DHS’s statement that didn’t very intentionally include the words “criminal illegal alien” in it, making it a statement that had certainly veered into “doth protest too much” territory. Also, DHS has made a habit of using that language to describe allegedly undocumented migrants who had no prior criminal convictions, which most ICE and Border Patrol detainees do not.
Secondly, the last time DHS accused someone of weaponizing their vehicle against federal agents, the department was using the false narrative to posthumously attack Renee Nicole Good after she was shot and killed by an agent who video footage shows her attempting to drive away from. Before that, DHS levied the same accusation against Marimar Martinez of Chicago, who the government claimed was part of a “convoy” of anti-ICE protestors when she was shot by an agent. That case was ultimately dismissed due to numerous “discrepancies” in Border Patrol and DHS’s accounts of what happened, as well as the government’s mishandling of material evidence.
Again, none of this necessarily means DHS is lying this time, but there’s no reason not to take any information from this administration with the most microscopic grains of salt.
Anyway, regardless of what really happened, residents in the area are saying what residents and local officials in virtually every major city the Trump administration has flooded with feds have been saying.
They’re a menace, not protectors or peacekeepers.
More from ABC:
Some were seen holding Mexican flags and filming videos on their phone. At one point, the group was yelling at members of the sheriff’s department.
“I saw the car crash … it was just crazy,” said one resident who lives in the area. “It’s just crazy how they’re coming over here and interrupting everybody’s livelihood and their lives … this is just their lives.”
Some of the people who showed up are TikTokers who said they’re working to be the voice for those who may be afraid.
“The federal ones … they like to come and go,” said Angie Vargas, a local TikToker and live streamer. “They like to move quick, so the fact that they’re here and this incident happened, I think honestly, they came to the wrong city. A lot of us are out against what’s going on, but yes, they are around our city, and I think there’s a lot of us out here … supporting the community, being an extra set of eyes for them. That’s why we’re here. We’re filming. We’re bringing everything … the truth of what’s going on, because there’s a lot of people that are scared to come out and see what’s going on.”
Again, all across the country, communities are singing the same song, and government officials would have us believe everyone is lying but them.
Sometimes it’s just clear who’s on the right side of history.
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