The California medics who tried to stop ICE agents from arresting an undocumented migrant who ran into a surgical center have been federally charged over the incident.
Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, were charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal agents, according to the Justice Department.
Ortega was arrested Friday morning and Davila remains wanted as police look for her.
Denis Guillen-Solis, 30, had been landscaping outside the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario, California, when ICE agents tried to approach him as they conducted roving immigration-related operations.
Upon noticing the officers, Guillen-Solis, from Honduras, attempted to flee, running into the medical facility in search of safety.
The federal immigration agents then followed him inside, where a tense and chaotic scene unfolded.
In a video clip of the altercation that has spread on social media, the medical staff in blue scrubs are heard telling an armed ICE agent wearing a mask and bulletproof vest to let go of the man, who is crying and gasping for breath.
California medical worker Jose de Jesus Ortega was arrested on Friday after he tried preventing the arrest of an undocumented migrant who ran into the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center in Ontario to evade ICE agents
ICE agents forcibly detained Honduran migrant Denis Guillen-Solis inside the California medical center earlier this month
Officials said Ortega and Davila stepped in between the ICE agents and the migrant
‘Get your hands off of him. You don’t even have a warrant,’ says one staff member, shielding the man from an immigration agent. ‘Let him go. You need to get out.’
United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a statement Friday: ‘This story is another example of a false narrative echoed in the media in furtherance of an agenda to delegitimize federal agents.
‘The illegal alien arrested inside the surgery center was not a patient. He ran inside for cover and these defendants attempted to block his apprehension by assaulting our agents.
‘It doesn’t matter who you are or where you work, if you assault our agents or otherwise interfere with our operations, you will be arrested and charged with a federal crime.’
If convicted, the medical workers could face a statutory maximum sentence of eight years in federal prison on the assault count and up to six years in federal prison on the conspiracy count.
The Department of Homeland Security posted on X that officers in Ontario were conducting a targeted operation to arrest two men who were in the country illegally when one of the men, identified as a 30-year-old from Honduras, fled on foot.
The department said the surgery center staff ‘assaulted law enforcement’ and attempted to obstruct the arrest.
Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said agents eventually arrested the Honduran man, and advocates do not know where he is. He was sending money to Honduras to help his mother with her dialysis treatments, Hernandez said.
Danielle Nadine Davila was also charged over the incident but remains wanted, according to officials
Police say Ortega, pictured, is one of the medics who tried to prevent the ICE arrest
He said he doubts it was a targeted operation as ICE claims because agents also questioned two co-workers until learning they both had legal status, one as a US citizen and the other as a permanent resident.
ICE has become much more public in detaining migrants, now going into immigration courts and workplaces to cuff people and take them away.
Earlier this month the bishop of San Bernardino formally excused Catholic parishioners from their weekly obligation to attend Mass following immigration detentions on two parish properties in the diocese, which includes Ontario.
