Oregon Woman Says ICE Broke Out Her Car Windows and Detained Her for Filming Them

The First Amendment protects filming the police, but Berenice Garcia-Hernandez says she was dragged out of her car and detained for nearly seven hours for snapping photos of ICE agents.

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the Portland area busted out the car windows of a U.S. citizen, dragged her out of her vehicle, and detained her for roughly seven hours before releasing her without charges in late October. 

Two weeks later, the woman says ICE still has her cell phone and engagement ring.

Berenice Garcia-Hernandez, 25, says that all she did to draw the ire of ICE agents was take photos of their car in a Chick-fil-A parking lot near Gresham, Oregon. Garcia-Hernandez's case, first reported by The Oregonian, is yet another case of federal immigration officers allegedly retaliating against U.S. citizens for recording them.

Garcia-Hernandez told The Oregonian that she saw a Facebook post about ICE activity near the fast-food restaurant and drove over in her fiancé's car, which has government-issued plates, to take photos. In response to the Trump administration's mass deportation program, activist networks and social media accounts have sprung up to track ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) activity. 

Observing and recording law enforcement is firmly protected by the First Amendment, as long as one doesn't physically interfere with officers. Nevertheless, the ICE agents began following Garcia-Hernandez after she left the parking lot.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on what probable cause officers had to arrest Garcia-Hernandez. However, in a statement to the Oregonian, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin accused Garcia-Hernandez of aggressively following and obstructing ICE officers, as well as resisting arrest.

"Her reckless and dangerous behavior included driving over a curb and coordinating with another unlicensed vehicle to block and intimidate law enforcement officers," McLaughlin told the outlet.

Garcia-Hernandez's attorney, Michael Fuller, says that's a lie and that he has the video to prove it.

Fuller provided Reason with additional cell phone footage taken by Garcia-Hernandez, which shows ICE officers tailing her for two minutes as she's driving. When she stops at a red light, the other car pulls alongside her.

"Police department," an ICE officer can be heard saying in the video, "why are you taking photos?"

"You're not police," Garcia-Hernandez says. "I know who you are."

"You know you're in a government vehicle?" the officer responds. "You just got fired."

"Fuck you, keep going," Garcia-Hernandez says as the light changes and she begins driving away. The video ends at this point.

Garcia-Hernandez told The Oregonian that when she stopped at another red light, the ICE agents turned on their emergency lights and pulled her over.

Additional footage of Garcia-Hernandez's arrest taken by a bystander shows Garcia-Hernandez being dragged out of her car. An ICE vehicle is parked perpendicular in front of her car, blocking her in.

Garcia-Hernandez was taken to a South Portland ICE detention facility and detained for roughly seven hours before being released. Officials allegedly seized her cell phone and engagement ring.

On October 31, Fuller sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem demanding the return of Garcia-Hernandez's possessions and to preserve evidence in her case—a typical prelude to a lawsuit. Fuller says his office has received no response, nor has Garcia-Hernandez received her things. She has not been charged with a crime.

The DHS Office of Public Affairs has made a habit of putting out demonstrably false statements about recent ICE arrests and excessive-force incidents. These statements, which DHS never corrects, poison the public record, attack the reputations of innocent people, and chill free speech.

"The willingness to lie is unusual because you know these cases end up in court," Fuller says. "It's fun to lie now, but eventually people are going to review the video, people are going to be under oath. It's not a very good long-term strategy, but we've seen them lie about almost all of our clients."

Fuller's firm is also representing Francisco Miranda, a U.S. citizen who was allegedly arrested by ICE agents in Portland in early October.

These kinds of civil rights lawsuits take years to resolve, but it's much harder to distort the factual record in a courtroom than in a press release.

"We're gonna see these cases through, and it'll be interesting to see how they handle the fact that they went on the record with pretty provable lies to try to make themselves look better in the moment," Fuller says.

As for Garcia-Hernandez, she's not staying quiet.

"I think that we should continue to use our voices and continue to warn others about what's happening because it is not OK how our people, our community is being treated," Garcia-Hernandez told The Oregonian. "And me as a U.S. Citizen, I ended up being treated this way just because I was taking pictures and videos of (them) to warn the community. They were mad because they were getting exposed."