SANTA ANA, California (CNN) – A veteran Marine infantryman said that his father was beaten and dragged by ICE agents last June, and the arrest was captured on video.
Narciso Barranco is the father of three United States Marine infantrymen whose arrest shocked the Southern California community.
Although he is no longer in ICE custody, his future remains uncertain.
Barranco spent nearly three weeks in a detention center after his violent arrest was captured on camera in Orange County, California.
The 48-year-old gardener was working outside an IHOP restaurant in Santa Ana on June 21 when one of his children said masked agents shoved his father to the ground.
The agents were captured on camera striking Barranco in the face and the head.
The Department of Homeland Security defended the agents’ actions. They said Barranco resisted the agents’ commands and insisted that the man hurled a lawn mower at an officer.
Authorities said he assaulted the officers, but his son said he was only charged with being in the country as an undocumented immigrant.
Barranco’s son said that during the arrest his father dislocated his shoulder.
Although Barranco is an undocumented immigrant, he has lived in the United States since the early 1990s and has no criminal record.
Officials say arrests like Barranco’s have touched many people across the country, causing sadness, fear, and terror.
Barranco’s family said they applied for the Parole in Place program, which allows undocumented relatives of military members to remain in the United States.
