3 U.S. Marine brothers faced toughest mission: Getting their dad freed from ICE custody

Los Angeles Times

5 days ago

Narciso Barranco, an undocumented landscaper in Orange County, instilled a sense of pride for his adopted country in his three American-born sons.
All three boys joined the Marines, which they saw as a sound start for a better life in the United States.
Then, in June, Barranco was grabbed by masked federal immigration agents while working on the job.
His arrest went viral on social media, with some outraged at images of the agents beating Barranco. For the last month, his family waded through the federal immigration system under the Trump administration. Narciso, 48, was born in Morelos, Mexico, and arrived in the United States more than 30 years ago, where he married a U.S. citizen and three sons.
Within hours of his arrest, his eldest son was talking to reporters and pushing for his release. The sons' service in the U.S. military kept a media focus on his case, and thanks to a variety of interviews his eldest son provided, the case remained in the news cycle.
Narciso Barranco was finally released on bond after spending 24 days in custody, but he still faced an uncertain future.
Narciso's best advocate as his case moves forward is his 25-year-old son Alejandro Barranco, a Marine veteran who served as an engineer equipment mechanic and was deployed to Afghanistan during the U.S. withdrawal from the country.
The junior Barranco has tried his best to rescue his father's livelihood since the arrest. He took up his father's work as a landscaper and put his own work on hold. He's waited outside federal detention facilities — first in Los Angeles and then in Adelanto — just to see his father or to attend immigration court hearings.
'It has for sure been an irritating process, to see how poorly they treat the people who are trying to get access to their families in these places,' Alejandro Barranco said. 'It's either unprofessional or they're doing all of this poorly to treat people with this type of disrespect.'
Alejandro served in the Marines from 2019 to 2023. He was honorably discharged and is now a landscaper like his father and is working to become a licensed contractor.
Alejandro's younger brothers, Emanuel and José Luis, are serving in the Marines and stationed at Camp Pendleton.
They're unable to speak to the media about their father's treatment so Alejandro Barranco has become the family spokesperson. While they've remained quiet about the whole ordeal, they have attended their father's court hearings and provided their support in private.
It was a source of pride for the Barranco family that all three sons joined the military, Alejandro Barranco said. His parents raised him and his brothers to be educated and to be as helpful as possible to their country.
'That was just how they raised us and it was something that my family were proud of,' Alejandro Barranco said.
The agents grabbed Narciso Barranco on June 21 outside a Santa Ana IHOP while he tended to some grass with a weed whacker. He wore sun glasses and a baseball cap, unaware that the agents were coming for him.
Video released by immigration officials showed agents pepper-spraying and beating Barranco before hauling him off to an overcrowded federal detention facility 80 miles away in San Bernardino County.
Narcisco Barranco was released by an immigration judge on bond on July 15.
His family is thrilled to have him home but is still worried about Barranco's health, unsure if he received a concussion from his arrest that went unnoticed while he was in the federal detention.
'He has a lot of headaches, and some pain in his shoulder,' Alejandro Barranco said about his father's condition after he was released from the Adelanto detention facility.
It's been a shocking ordeal, especially with how the federal government said that Narciso Barranco attacked the immigration agents who arrested him and repeatedly punched him in the head while he was on the ground. Alejandro Barranco said that his father was surprised to hear that detail, but he has not been charged with assaulting any federal officials.
He's read his father the messages of support posted on social media he's received from strangers and tried to reassure his father that people are watching his case.
'I keep reading to him the names of the people who support him online, how people are talking about his situation,' Alejandro Barranco said. His father is taken aback but is still having some difficulty processing what has happened.
His father was injured during his arrest, according to Alejandro. But days after, the only thing the father wanted to know was how his truck and landscaping equipment were accounted for. He asked his son to take over his work, Alejandro said
The fact that three of his sons are serving or have served the U.S. government has not deterred Narcisco Barranco from wanting to become a citizen.
'I'm making sure that my father's story is told and I'm also making sure that people know what a hard worker he is,' Alejandro Barranco said.
'It's disappointing that my parents worked so hard raising us and that their three boys who were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for this country now find themselves going through all of this. Being taken away like this. It's just rather sad that it's come to this,' he added.
It's unclear why the masked federal agents singled out Barranco
The Dept. of Homeland Security shared the video on social media and said Barranco attacked the agent with his gardening tool. Video of the attack shows Barranco hold up his weed whacker as a masked federal agent shoots pepper spray at him.
'The agents took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the public and our officers.
Ramirez, Barranco's attorney, called the federal government's arrest tactics 'arbitrary, careless and they include racial profiling and go beyond racial profiling.'
Barranco was briefly held at a detention facility in Los Angeles and then transported to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County. The facility is overseen by Immigration Customs and Enforcement and GEO Group, a Florida-based private prison corporation.
The facility has seen a massive increase in detainees since the Trump administration started its indiscrimate arrests across Southern California.
The facility held around 300 people near the end of April and now holds around 1,600 people, according to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice .
Barranco said the conditions at Adelanto were subpar, according to Ramirez.
Federal inspectors who visited the facility last month reported inadequate medical care and not enough guards to operate the facility. Some people wore the same clothes for 10 days in a row due to a lack of essentials at the facility.
Barranco declined to speak to the media following his release from Adelanto. He applied for parole in place, which allows certain undocumented immigrants to remain in the country pending a change in their immigration status. The federal government is seeking to remove him from the country, Ramirez said, and due to the pending removal he's not legally able to work, according to Ramirez.
'He's very eager to go back to work and to go back to contribute to his household,' but he's not legally allowed to work waiting pending his application for a parole-in-place.
Barranco is now trying to learn English through online classes, Alejandro Barranco said. His father is humbled by the show of support his family has shown him online.
But the whole experience has also left him changed, Alejandro Barranco said.
'He seems scared. He's confused and I think he's just overwhelmed by everything we're telling him,' Alejandro Barranco said. 'He's a hardworking, kind person who is always there to help. He inspires a lot of people. His close friends were devastated. He's just a nice person.'