Arrest Now, Ask Questions Later": Why Did ICE Agents Arrest and Jail U.S. Citizen Andrea Velez?

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00:00This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.

00:02We go now to Los Angeles, where our mass federal agents have spent the last month carrying

00:07out arrests across the city.

00:09Families, immigrant advocates, say they're struggling to find their loved ones when they

00:13are disappeared.

00:15In one case, the family of a community activist and mother, Yuliana Uliana—they call her

00:21Yuli Pelez Calderón—said she was taken at gunpoint on June 25th by two men in unmarked

00:29cars who pulled over as she went to work at night, which is uncommon.

00:34She used a borrowed phone to call her family to say she was taken to a warehouse where women

00:40are held alongside men.

00:42She compared the men who took her to bounty hunters and has not had proper food or access

00:48to her medication.

00:50This is Stefano Medina, managing attorney with the L.A. Office of California Center for Movement

00:57Legal Services.

00:59So, DHS is out now saying that this is a hoax and that this is all made up because they

01:06don't have any record of Julie in their system, which I don't doubt.

01:11She's not in their system.

01:13But Julie, in that phone call that she made to her family from a borrowed phone, told us

01:19that she was taken directly from where she was picked up in South Central Los Angeles to

01:24San Ysidro, where she was presented to an ICE official and pressured to sign a voluntary

01:29self-deportation agreement.

01:31Medina says Julie's family filed a missing persons report with the L.A. Police Department

01:37as they continued their search for her.

01:39Meanwhile, the family of Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen, described her arrest by ICE last month

01:45as a kidnapping.

01:46Andrea had just been dropped off at work by her mom and her sister when the pair witnessed

01:52mass federal agents grabbing her and taking Andrea in an unmarked car during an immigration

01:58raid.

01:59One video shows a masked agent lifting Andrea off the ground and carrying her away.

02:06Andrea's sister, Estrella Rosas, spoke with CBS News Los Angeles.

02:11They didn't have a vest that said ICE or anything.

02:15Their cars didn't have license plates.

02:17Just because of the color of our skin, they think that we're criminals.

02:22My sister was there, so they like, oh, like she looks Hispanic, so let's take her too.

02:28Ultimately, Andrea Velez was released, but was charged with assaulting a federal officer

02:34during her arrest.

02:35Andrea Velez spoke at a news conference last week.

02:37They didn't identify themselves.

02:40I can't go through it, but yeah, it was—I was just going to work.

02:45It was just a day of work, and like everything happened so fast, so yeah, and they didn't

02:53identify themselves, so I was kind of scared.

02:55For more, we're joined in Los Angeles by Dominique Boubion.

02:59She is an attorney helping to represent Andrea Velez.

03:03This is just such an astounding story.

03:05Dominique, can you explain what happened as we watch her being carried with their arms

03:11under her chest as she—walking forward?

03:15Where was she taken?

03:17Where was she held?

03:17How did you find out when she was disappeared and her family panicked?

03:22Yes, of course.

03:23So we were contacted by the family later that day in the afternoon because they had seen—the

03:29mother had seen her daughter being taken by ICE agents but didn't know they were ICE,

03:34had no idea who they were.

03:36And so they were terrified and looking for help just to locate her.

03:41And the video that you mentioned where she's being lifted and carried up, that's actually

03:44when she went to the police officers at LAPD asking for help, telling them, these men are

03:49taking me.

03:51So I'll back up and explain what happened.

03:52If you can explain that point, we're watching her being carried.

03:58Who is carrying her?

03:59And I do see police, I see the police cars, the LAPD.

04:03Who is carrying her?

04:05So that is an ICE agent.

04:07We now know it's an ICE agent.

04:09And she was being carried away from the LAPD officers that she went over to for help because

04:14she didn't know who the men were or where she was being taken.

04:17She had no idea.

04:19That morning, just minutes before, her mother had dropped her off at work on 9th and Main,

04:23downtown LA.

04:24And as she exited the vehicle, she walked three, four steps onto the sidewalk and suddenly there

04:31was a swarm of vehicles surrounding her.

04:35So as she's kind of getting her bearings, what's going on?

04:37She sees vendors over to her right and she assumes, okay, this must be, maybe it's a

04:41raid. I don't know.

04:43She sees men approaching them, but she looks to her left and she sees an ICE agent about 10

04:48feet away running full speed at her and becomes terrified.

04:52She's 4'11".

04:53This is a man who in her estimation is over six feet.

04:56He's masked and he does not stop.

04:59So she becomes, she gets scared and her reaction is to hover and block herself to

05:05protect herself and she's thrown to the ground.

05:08The ICE agent continues on for about another 10, 15 seconds to get their target and then returns

05:14and tells her she's under arrest for what she describes as interfering.

05:19She gets put into a vehicle, a van, an unmarked van, and she's in handcuffs.

05:24And while she's waiting, she sees the officer.

05:28So she walks over to the officer and asks if he would help her.

05:32She doesn't know who these men are.

05:34And that's when you see the ICE agent pick her up and take her back to the unmarked van.

05:39Why was she picked up, Dominique?

05:43She physically picked up or why was she arrested?

05:46Arrested.

05:48So what she is being charged with is assault on a peace officer.

05:51So the version of the story that the federal agent is putting forth is that

05:56Andrea Velez purposefully walked into his path in order to protect whoever their target was

06:01and knocked that ICE agent off balance and hit him in the head.

06:05It's a complete fabrication, didn't happen.

06:10I believe it's more of a, number one, racial profiling.

06:14They were speaking to her in Spanish, even though she was demonstrating that she was,

06:18could speak fluent English and that she was a U.S. citizen.

06:21And I think it was a matter of, let's see if she is a U.S. citizen.

06:26And, and if she is, then we'll slap on these charges.

06:30It's an, it's an issue of it's, um, arrest now, ask questions later.

06:35So straight up racial profiling?

06:38A hundred percent.

06:39A hundred percent.

06:40Andrea Velez has, um, she's a darker skinned Latino.

06:43And a hundred percent.

06:45I believe that this was racial profiling.

06:47We have to leave it there.

06:48We'll continue to follow this case.

06:49Dominique Bubion and one of the attorneys,

06:51hoping to represent Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen arrested by ICE.

06:56I'm Amy Goodman.

06:57Thanks so much for joining us.

06:58Thanks for watching Democracy Now! on YouTube.

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07:19Thank you for staying next week.

07:21Thank you very much.

07:25Thanks for watching.

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