Immigration agents caught on camera urinating on school campus

The El Rancho Unified School District (ERUSD) Board of Education issued a letter to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after security footage revealed immigration agents urinating on Ruben Salazar High School grounds on Tuesday, June 10, per a statement issued by ERUSD on Wednesday, July 2. 

That morning, eight to 10 unmarked vehicles entered the high school’s parking lot without consent and were asked to leave by ERUSD staff. Agents complied and exited the premises without incident. 

School district staff had alerted administration to what they witnessed before the agents left. 

“ERUSD staff advised ERUSD executive management that they observed ICE agents urinating at Salazar in public view the morning of the Incident. A review of ERUSD video surveillance from the date of the Incident reveals that ERUSD’s video footage captured approximately ten (10) ICE agents urinating near storage containers on the Salazar campus’ parking lot. This occurred in broad daylight commencing at approximately 8:54 a.m. to approximately 9:04 a.m.,” as said in the public statement issued by the ERUSD. 

ABC 7 Eyewitness News received a comment from a spokesperson with the Department of Homeland Security saying, "This matter is under investigation."

While Salazar High School is not open for summer school, there is an elementary school right next door to the campus. 

“Immediately adjacent to the storage containers is a pre-school playground, used by the ERUSD’s Early Learning Program staff and children, with its blacktop clearly marked with playground markings. Also, immediately adjacent to the containers is the City of Pico Rivera Smith Park, and Valencia Academy of the Arts Elementary School, which was in session for summer school. Any reasonable person, of any profession, entering Salazar where the ICE agents were urinating would clearly recognize the surroundings to be those of a school where minors are taught,” the statement said. 

In the letter to Homeland Security, it states, “ICE agents unlawfully trespassed ERUSD school grounds and did not exercise sound and respectful judgment with the risk of exposing themselves to minors and committing a public offense under California Law.”

California ordinance sec. 41.47.2 Urinating or Defecating in Public states, “No person shall urinate or defecate in or upon any public street, sidewalk, alley, plaza, beach, park, public building or other publicly maintained facility or place, or in any place open to the public or exposed to public view, except when using a urinal, toilet or commode located in a restroom, or when using a portable or temporary toilet or other facility designed for the sanitary disposal of human waste and which is enclosed from public view.”

As stated in the letter, “ERUSD respectfully requests an immediate investigation of this matter, with a response as to the findings and conclusion of said investigation. Furthermore, ERUSD is hereby requesting the names, titles, and badge numbers of each officer, agent, supervisor, and/or representative who not only were present at the incident but who also aided, allowed, caused, and permitted unlawful behavior to take place.” 

That same morning, 20-year-old Pico Rivera resident Adrian Andrew Martinez was arrested less than a mile from Ruben Salazar High School and was taken forcefully by federal agents after he was defending a man at the Pico Rivera Towne Center, located off of Washington Boulevard and Rosemead Boulevard. 

Later that day, residents of Pico Rivera demonstrated against Martinez’s arrest and ICE detaining multiple people in the city. 

It took more than 24 hours to locate where Martinez was taken after his arrest. He was held at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles and was located the next day on Wednesday, June 18. 

Congresswoman Linda T. Sánchez worked with Martinez’s family to locate him and called out to the Trump administration in a letter explaining, “I am deeply troubled that a U.S. citizen, who supports his family by working at Walmart, and is, by all accounts, an upstanding member of his community, continues to be detained by the federal government. Furthermore, upon learning more details of the raid and others occurring throughout Los Angeles, I am deeply concerned that the specific immigration raid that took place at this Walmart seems to be in violation of 42 U.S. Code § 1985, which states that targeting workers on the basis of their race, as well as subsequent use of excessive force, is a blatant violation of their civil rights.”

“I have a constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Justice. These agencies are responsible in part for ensuring that the rights of American citizens are upheld,” the letter continued. 

Martinez’s lawyers stated on June 19 that he suffered abrasions and bruising across his body and had not received medical care since his arrest two days prior. 

Three days after his arrest, Martinez was released from federal custody on a $5,000 bond, and no assault charges were filed, after it was alleged that he had hit a federal officer. 

“Adrian did nothing wrong, and was standing up for an elderly janitorial worker when he was violently assaulted and abducted by masked federal agents,” said attorneys from The Miller Law Group in a statement issued the same day of Martinez’s release. 

“U.S. Attorney Essayli and U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino outrageously alleged that Adrian assaulted a federal agent. However, he has not been charged with an assault charge because he didn’t assault anyone, and the evidence of that is clear. Instead, he has been charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, a felony. This is clearly a trumped up charge filed to justify the federal agents’ violent treatment of Adrian,” the statement said.