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ICE has come under fire after videos on social media claimed to show a 17-year-old boy being arrested by agents while working at a Target store in Richfield, Minnesota. According to social media posts, Jonathan Aguilar Garcia was arrested despite being a US citizen, with some posts claiming he was targeted because ICE agents simply assumed he was an immigrant because of how he looked.
Alleged ICE arrest of 17-year-old 'US citizen' in Minnesota sparks fury (REUTERS/Tim Evans) (REUTERS)Garcia was allegedly arrested along with another US citizen and teenager, Christian Miranda Romano, who was also working at the same Target store. Rep. Jimmy Gomez from California claimed in a Facebook post that Garcia was later “dumped” at a Walmart parking lot after the ICE agents realized he was a US citizen.
“This is barbaric. In Minneapolis, MN, 17 year-old Target employee Jonathan Aguilar Garcia, a U.S. citizen, was taken by CBP while on the job because they assumed he was an immigrant. He was later dumped at a nearby Walmart parking lot crying and bleeding when they realized he really was a citizen,” Gomez wrote.
Videos of the arrest have widely surfaced on social media.
Who is Jonathan Aguilar Garcia?Garcia is a lawful US citizen, according to various social media posts. He is a Target employee and was working at a store when he was arrested.
Itzyy Romano, Christian Romano’s cousin, wrote in a Facebook post that the teen was arrested by ICE without a motive, calling it racial profiling. “My cousin Christian Miranda Romano who is a BORN & RAISED US citizen was arrested by ICE today from work. No warrant, no probable motive for the arrest. was flat out RACIALLY profiled. When we communicated with ICE agents and presented his birth certificate and social security card they stated they didn’t care he was a citizen. They DONT care who you are, if you fit the “profile” you’re a target for them. He is being held at the Fort Snelling detention center with no communication with us. If you were able to record the incident please send me a message,” Itzzy wrote.
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Jossi, another family member of Romano, shared a similar Facebook post saying, “Please keep my family in your prayers. My brother, a U.S. citizen, was detained by ICE today while working at Target in Richfield. We have spoken directly with ICE, and they told us they didn’t care that he is a U.S. citizen and refused to release him. We followed ICE after they detained him, and what we saw was heartbreaking and disturbing. The agents were completely heartless. They showed no concern for anyone involved—citizen or not. We also saw other people inside the ICE vehicles, and they appeared completely unresponsive, with no visible movement, which was terrifying to witness.”
While some Facebook posts claimed Romano was later released, there has been no official confirmation.
Jossi shared in another post that Romano and Garcia were “merely recording” when ICE came to their workplace, when they were arrested. “For those who say Christian and Jonathan sought their own evil: you are very wrong,” reads the post. “They were merely recording what was happening when ICE came to their job, intending to inform and alert the community. That is not a crime.”
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“We all have the right to express ourselves, to document what happens and to speak up. What happened is not good and should not be happening,” Jossi added.
Elon Musk clashes with Jeff Deep over the incidentJeff Dean, Chief Scientist for Google DeepMind and Google Research, and Gemini Lead at the tech giant, condemned Garcia and Romano’s arrest after the videos surfaced. Elon Musk responded to the post, clashing with Deep.
Sharing a video of the arrest, Deep wrote, “This is completely not okay, and we can't become numb to repeated instances of illegal and unconstitutional action by government agencies. The recent days have been horrific.”
Musk commented on the post, “There is no evidence that he showed his passport. Do you have anything besides hearsay on the Internet?”
ICE is facing widespread criticism after the death of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was gunned down by federal agent Jonathan Ross after she allegedly struck him with her vehicle. Ross has served as a deportation officer with ICE since 2015.
While the Department of Homeland Security and Donald Trump claimed Good was shot and killed in self-defense, Democrats condemned the shooting, with Nancy Pelosi calling the incident “a betrayal of American values” and Karen Bass calling it “the senseless killing of an innocent and unarmed wife and mother”.
HT.com has not independently verified claims regarding their citizenship or the circumstances of the arrest.