Dramatic footage caught the moment Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke a car’s window when alleged Tren de Aragua members refused to come out.
The suspected gangsters were arrested in Spokane, Washington, on March 10.
Kayla Somarriba, who filmed the incident, was inside the vehicle with her husband Jeison Ruiz-Rodriguez and his brother Cesar Ruiz-Rodriquez when they were stopped by ICE.
Somarriba, who is pregnant, said they did not see a warrant and did not think they had to exit their car, because they ‘knew their rights.’
Ice agents shattered he car’s window and opened the door to forcibly remove the men.
The brothers were on their way to a court hearing to ‘fight’ a felony harassment charge, Jeison’s lawyer told Komo News.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office says the brothers threatened to kill someone and fired a gun into the air outside an apartment complex in December.
But Jeison’s public Defender Kyle Madsen claims the police story is inaccurate and called the agents’ actions ‘horrific.’
‘We had begun our own investigation. We had talked to some of the witnesses. It was clear that whatever was reported that night was not exactly the full story,’ Madsen said.
‘We had gathered additional information, and we were planning to either set this case for trial or work out an immigration safe resolution.’
ICE said in a statement that the migrants ‘failed to obey a lawful order to exit a vehicle, which resulted in forced entry by I.C.E officers.’
The agency said both men are suspected members of Venezuela’s notorious Tren de Aragua crime gang.
Jeison’s lawyer denies this and says his client is Nicaraguan, not Venezuelan.
‘Absolutely not, based on what I have seen, what I understand about him, and based on all the information that the state has given me as a part of discovery, it appears that he has no prior contacts with law enforcement, certainly nothing meaningful,’ Madsen said.
Madsen said he believes local police gave ICE information about Jeison and filed a motion to dismiss the case on those grounds, arguing the Keep Washington Working Act was violated.
The act limits local police from assisting federal immigration officers.
Trump labeled the Tren de Aragua an invading force on Saturday when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a little-used authority from 1798 that allows the president to deport any noncitizen during wartime.
Hours later, the Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations. Flights were in the air when the ruling came down.
The Trump administration has not identified the more than 200 immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States.
From the heartland to major cities like New York and Chicago, the gang has been blamed for sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings, as well as the exploitation of the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants who have crossed into the U.S. in recent years.
Trump told Congress this month that a Venezuelan migrant found guilty of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus was a member of the gang.
The size of the gang is unclear as is the extent to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and national borders.