00:00La growing number of ICE arrests has prompted San Diego leaders to organize a rally and march today in City
00:05Heights,
00:06which has seen a lot of enforcement in the past few weeks.
00:09That includes the arrest of two American citizens just yesterday outside a grocery store.
00:13That's where the rally will start in just a few minutes.
00:16That is also where we find NBC7's Shelby Bremer, who has more on those arrests for us, Shelby.
00:23Yeah, hey Catherine, hey Monica.
00:24We're right off Fairmount and University, and this is where those arrests happened yesterday.
00:28It actually started with the arrest of one man, but this is a really busy area,
00:32and we've seen time and again that these ICE arrests can get kind of chaotic,
00:36and that's exactly what happened.
00:38Witnesses started yelling, and it turned into quite the scene.
00:42Don't tell me what to do. You don't own this parking lot.
00:45Tense moments unfolded in City Heights just before noon Tuesday
00:48as a community patroller arrived in the L Super parking lot and confronted two federal agents.
00:54What are you going to do, arrest me? You can't arrest me.
00:56Oh, you will for what?
00:58Shut the f**k up.
00:59She's yelling and recording. Within seconds, she's in handcuffs.
01:03Hey, what are you doing? Hey, I have this on camera.
01:05The first thing that went through my mind is I was happy it wasn't a bullet
01:08because I know that other people have met that fate.
01:12Brooke Benner is an American citizen.
01:14A few minutes after she was taken into custody, agents detained another woman just steps away.
01:21It's not on video, but witnesses say that woman kicked an ICE vehicle and is an American citizen, too.
01:28Brooke says they were both taken to the federal building downtown and held in the basement for about seven hours,
01:33then released without charges.
01:35Witnesses say this all began with the arrest of a man who's here legally.
01:39He was lucky enough to be released right away, but the community is very scared right now.
01:44There's definitely an uptick in ICE activity here.
01:47Community organizations say that includes enforcement near schools, like this arrest Monday outside Hamilton Elementary.
01:54ICE says they do not target schools, adding that's a false narrative to try and demonize their brave law enforcement.
02:00The patrollers say all this was scary.
02:03They had asked me if I had any children, and when they asked me for my daughter's name, I cried
02:11because I'm risking a lot.
02:16But they want to keep tailing ICE.
02:19I don't know how to convince people to see people for people.
02:25Now, just within the last hour, ICE did get back to us with a statement about this incident.
02:29They said that they arrested two agitators attempting to impede operations.
02:34They said the two were interviewed and officers released them.
02:37But the agency went on to say that violence against officers will not be tolerated.
02:41Remember, those two people were not charged with anything when they were released.
02:44But it's incidents like this that have prompted this rally.
02:48You can see the people gathering behind me.
02:49It's scheduled to start in just a few minutes.
02:51We expect Councilmember Shangela Rivera and Mayor Todd Gloria to be here and speak.
02:56We'll have a look at what they have to say coming up at 6 for now.
02:59Live from City Heights, Shelby Bremer, NBC7.
03:02Okay, we'll see you then.
03:03Thanks, Shelby.
