ICE protester in Detroit charged by federal prosecutors with impeding officer

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A protester who was demonstrating against the arrest of an immigrant in Detroit was charged by federal prosecutors Tuesday, July 1, with impeding an officer.
Roman Gomez-Ocadiz is accused of driving a silver truck in the path of a law enforcement vehicle on a grassy lot in Detroit during an operation the morning of June 30 led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain an immigrant from Honduras. Several other federal and local police agencies with the Homeland Security Task Force Detroit assisted ICE on Monday in arresting Marcos Fabian Arita Bautista, an immigrant who is accused of living in the U.S. without authorization and fleeing ICE.
The attorney for Gomez-Ocadiz, Celeste Kinney, a public federal defender, did not comment when reached by the Free Press.
During the operation, Gomez-Ocadiz was one of several protesters who arrived to demonstrate, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit. In an affidavit in the complaint filed July 1, an ICE agent with its Homeland Security Investigations division said that the incident started before the arrest of Bautista.
More: ICE raid of Detroit home leads to 3 arrests, police use of pepper spray
The description in the federal complaint describes part of what was seen in videos posted Monday by activists on Instagram, which show a silver truck driving in front of a black law enforcement vehicle driving on an empty, grassy lot. As police officers ran towards the silver truck, a man is seen running away from the truck.
Gomez-Ocadiz "approached one of the investigators in a silver Nissan truck and began speaking Spanish," the ICE agent said in the complaint. "A border patrol agent approached Gomez-Ocadiz and started speaking to him in Spanish and English, ordering him to back up and to not get closer to the scene."
Gomez-Ocadiz then "replied 'no' several times and then started speaking faintly to the border patrol agent in English through a raised vehicle window."
A task force officer then "drove away from the scene in the field" because a crowd of protesters was gathering, the complaint said. As he drove away, Gomez-Ocadiz drove "his truck alongside the (task force officer's) vehicle onto the field and cut him off perpendicularly to block" him.
Gomez-Ocadiz fled on foot, but was then caught by Detroit police officers after a "foot chase and the deployment of a taser," the federal complaint read.
Gomez-Ocadiz was released by Detroit police and went to an impound lot in Detroit to recover his truck that had been impounded by police. He was arrested by investigators at the impound lot at 4:30 p.m.
He was charged with forcibly resisting, opposing, interfering, and impeding an officer, a charge that could carry up to eight years in prison depending on whether he had physical contact with the victim.
The federal charge in Detroit is part of a growing crackdown this year on protesters accused of interfering with federal immigration operations. The Justice Department has told prosecutors in a memo obtained by CBS News in June to work on prosecutions of people who interfere with immigration agents.
In Detroit, activists with People's Movement Assembly have set up a hotline for people to call when ICE or Border Patrol tries to detain immigrants. Someone had called the hotline Monday to alert them about ICE agents targeting a home where Bautista was, People's Movement Assembly said. The group could not be reached Tuesday for comment. It's unclear if Gomez-Ocadiz is part of any group.
Contact Niraj Warikoo: [e-mail], X @nwarikoo or Facebook @nwarikoo
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: ICE protester in Detroit charged by federal prosecutors for impeding