A viral Facebook video shows self-identified U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in civilian clothes, entering a Portland home without permission and/or a warrant to arrest Carlos Bolaños, a man whom they believed to be in the country illegally. Bolaños’ friend and co-worker George Cardenas filmed the occurrence with ICE that started at around 10:30 a.m. last Thursday when he opened the door to the unidentified agents.
“All they asked was if I worked for my company and I said yes,” Cardenas said to the Oregonian. “Then they said, ‘Is Carlos here?'” Cardenas asked the suspicious agents to identify themselves and what business they had with Bolaños, however, the agents refused to answer the questions and helped themselves inside the house. Once inside, Cardenas told Bolaños, “They said were the police but they didn’t want to give me their names.” That’s when Cardenas took out his phone and started filming.
In the video, we can see a man of short stature in a green and black jacket and baseball cap demanding in a high-pitched voice to see Bolaños’ identification, when he asks “why?” the alleged ICE agent responds, “I have reason to believe you are not in the country legally.” Cardenas quickly asks the man if Bolaños is being charged with a crime, when the agent tiptoes around the question, Cardenas informs the trespassers that without a charge they have no reason to be in the house, the man in the baseball cap starts then fumbling his words and saying something unintelligible about the United States of America.
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“Do you guys have a warrant to come in this home?” asked Cardenas to the agents. “We don’t need a warrant to come in this home,” the man in the baseball cap responds, “no one lives here.” Cardenas starts calmly explains to the agents that they work with the homeowner. “Listen, I know that no one lives here,” continued the agent. “This is considered a place of business.”
Cardenas informs the agents that their intel is wrong and that the homeowner actually does live downstairs, and that in order to get in they would first need his consent. “If you guys don’t have a warrant, you’re kind of breaking the law,” said Cardenas to the dumbfounded agents who were just starting to realize the holes in their procedure. “Well, you are breaking the law, basically, at this point.” continued Cardenas, with the hopes that agents would realize that when you remodel a home it doesn’t automatically turn into a “place of business” where people lose their Fourth Amendment right to privacy, and even if it was a business, a federal agent would still need permission from the business owner to enter the property.
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As the video continues, the agents who had already broken several laws, doubled down on their stance by refusing to give their names or leave the house and wait for the homeowner, so before he arrives, they arrest Bolaños, only to release him 90 minutes later from the ICE office in downtown Portland. “They just said they picked him up for his history,” Cardenas said, “but that it was a mistake.”
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Since the video of the arrest went viral, Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for ICE wrote in statement that, “The alien at issue has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody pending further investigation regarding the circumstances of his arrest, and the matter has been referred to the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility and the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General.”
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Article inspired by Oregon Live // Watch ICE agents arrest man after entering Portland home without warrant