The target of the pre-dawn raid was a suspected member of MS-13 who had illegally entered the U.S. The team of 12 immigration agents and local police expected the 20-year-old suspect to be armed.
"He entered the country illegally so and then he went through the immigration process and a judge ordered him removed," said Jason Molina, assistant special agent in charge.
"We know he's an MS-13 member?" Brennan said.
"Yes. We have information, we have pictures of him actually flashing gang signs," Molina said.
But gang membership is not a crime, and the agents did not have a criminal warrant. They only weapons they found were "either pellet guns or BB guns," Molina said.
But Molina's team was still able to make the arrest based on the suspect's immigration status part of the unique mandate of the Homeland Security investigations unit of ICE. An hour later, they nabbed a second suspect. Molina said he is an MS-13 associate.
"So his known crime is entering the country illegally?" Brennan asked.
"Correct," Molina said.
"But that's it at this point, that's all you definitely know?" Brennan asked.
"That's correct. The purpose of classifying him as a gang member or a gang associate is because once he goes in front of an immigration judge, we don't want him to get bail, because the whole point of this operation is to get these known gang members off the street," Molina said.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez shot down the federal governments efforts to strip Daniel Ramirez Medina of his DACA status. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had arrested and detained Ramirez last year, then falsely claimed that he was affiliated with a gang and attempted to deport him. He filed suit, alleging that ICE had violated his due process rights. Martinez agreed. His order barred the federal government from voiding Ramirezs DACA status, safeguarding his ability to live and work in the United States legally for the foreseeable future. What may be most remarkable about Martinezs decision, though, is its blunt repudiation of ICEs main claimthat Ramirez is gang-affiliated. The judge did not simply rule against ICE. He accused the agency of lying to a court of law.
None of that even remotely suggests that the organization as a whole is doing that to all immigrants, and certainly not to all hispanics. That was 1 person who did that and the court ruled against him. ---