26-06-2025
US citizen arrested by Border Patrol in Pico Rivera speaks out after violent arrest
The Brief
Adrian Martinez was released from federal custody this week.
Immigration officers arrested Martinez last week at the Pico Rivera Walmart after they said he punched two officers.
Martinez was released because video of the arrest showed he didn't throw any punches.
Martinez is being charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer.
PICO RIVERA, Calif. - Following a federal hearing, Adrian Martinez was released from federal custody on a $5,000 bond this week. The 20-year-old was arrested by immigration officers at the Pico Rivera Walmart parking lot last week. The arrest was caught on camera.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Feds say man punched agents at Pico Rivera Walmart - security footage shows no punches
What we know
Federal immigration agents arrested Martinez on June 18 in the Walmart parking lot, when he tried to intervene while agents were conducting one of their operations, detaining undocumented immigrants.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol told FOX 11 after the incident that they arrested Martinez for allegedly punching two officers.
But, Judge Patricia Donahue determined the video of the arrest did not show Martinez hitting officers, like they claimed, although it did show him trying to block a federal vehicle.
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"I was scared," Martinez said, adding that he kept trying to get up when the officers subdued him, because he was afraid to get hit.
Attorneys from the Miller Law Group, who are representing Martinez, say he is being charged — not with assault, or attempted assault — but conspiracy to impede or injure an officer, a felony.
"It is clearly a trumped-up charge field to justify the federal agents' treatment" attorneys wrote in their release.
What they're saying
Martinez said he was held downtown, along with shackled, undocumented immigrants, and feared he'd be deported, even as he tried to tell officers he was born in the US.
"They wouldn't talk to me, even let me use a phone to call my family and let them know were I was," Martinez said.
Martinez's mother said she tried to show Adrian's birth certificate to agents at the Federal building, but they told her that Adrian wasn't there, even as he was watching his own mom from a van. He could not let her know where he was.
"These are the people we are supposed to trust," Adrian's mother said.
Martinez's arrest and the accusation that he hit officers resulted in loud protests in Pico Rivera, where ICE raids have prompted complaints from the public and politicians. Martinez is due back in court next month.
The Source
Information in this story is from interviews with the Martinez family and the Miller Law Group, and previous FOX 11 reports.
