Video of landscaper repeatedly punched by federal agent in Santa Ana sparks protest, fundraiser
A video posted to social media of a gardener being detained and repeatedly hit by a federal agent in Santa Ana sparked a demonstration with dozens of protesters and an online fundraiser this weekend.
A GoFundMe identifies the man as Narciso Barranco, who it says has three sons who are U.S. Marines.
Barranco was picked up by immigration agents on Saturday, June 21, while he was doing his landscaping job at the IHOP on Edinger Avenue and Ritchey Street, according to the GoFundMe, which raised more than $24,000 for legal expenses as of Sunday morning.
He was pepper-sprayed and punched in the face multiple times by masked and unidentified “officers,” the fundraiser, organized by Jacqueline Vasquez, states.
“He is a good, hard-working man. He has raised his family here and has established himself here,” it says. “What we all saw today was disgusting and heart-wrenching.”
The video posted on social media, followed by one of a man with a weed whacker being chased by federal agents, shows several people in U.S. Border Patrol uniforms restraining a man on the ground. One agent can be seen punching the man multiple times. The man is then forced into an SUV.
Later, after the video spread online, a protest of some 100 people took to the streets, waving American and Mexican flags and demanding that federal agents stop the sweeps they’ve been carrying out in Santa Ana, as shown in an NBC4 report.
Neither Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua nor the Border Patrol could be reached for comment.
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Staff writer Sydney Barragan contributed to this report.