Job Garcia is a recently graduated 37-year-old photographer & doctoral student at Claremont Graduate University. He’s filed a federal suit against the U.S. government, demanding $1 million in damages. The assertion comes from a recent episode on Garcia’s arrest. He was documenting an immigration raid at a Home Depot store when immigration officials swept him up. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (Maldef) is representing him in this case under the Federal Tort Claims Act.
The incident was captured on camera as part of a raid at the Los Angeles Home Depot. As a first step, Garcia started recording the arrests on his phone, planning to capture the day-to-day enforcement practices of immigration officials. Witnesses said that he was telling people that were inside of a boxed commercial truck to not answer questions from the officials. He was profoundly committed to defending their civil rights. His advocacy caught the ire of some masked bureaucrats.
Garcia faced a sudden and aggressive response. So…he gets tackled, thrown to the ground and then later arrested by the authorities. In the course of the confrontation, one of the masked agents threw Garcia’s phone, destroying his recorded footage. After his arrest, authorities shipped him to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He was held for 25 hours before being released.
During the entire ordeal, Garcia claimed his right to U.S. citizenship over and over again. For all his protestations, he was physically injured—having sustained bruising over most of his body. In addition, he suffered severe emotional anguish and financial damages as a result of his wrongful detention.
Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of Maldef. He stressed the relevance of Garcia’s case to larger societal issues that affect all of our rights as individuals.
“When government engages in widespread violation of individual rights with respect to immigrants without status, the harm inevitably spills over and spreads to others; that is why we must insist, as a society, on respect for the rights of everyone.” – Thomas Saenz, Maldef president and general counsel
Saenz added that Garcia’s actions were motivated by a sense of public duty.
“Here, a citizen, acting in the best traditions of our democracy, was engaged in documenting government misconduct to encourage policy change; he was wrongfully arrested and detained because of his race and his heroic efforts.” – Thomas Saenz, Maldef president and general counsel
In reply to press questions raised by this incident, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the following. According to them, Garcia was suspected of having attacked and threatened a federal agent. According to Garcia’s spokesperson, he was restrained and arrested for this purported assault.
This case poses important questions about how we protect those who report on immigration enforcement operations. Perhaps more importantly, it underscores the legal protections afforded to U.S. citizens in these encounters. Garcia has since filed a lawsuit seeking monetary damages. He wants to intervene in practices that might cause racial profiling and wrongful detention.