“My name is Alejandro Barranco. I am a proud Marine and the son of Narciso Barranco, who was violently attacked and detained on Saturday, June 21, 2025, in Santa Ana, California, while performing a job he had held since the 1990s.” This is how the eldest son of the gardener who has become famous for the brutality used by immigration agents in his arrest announced himself last Tuesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration. Videos from witnesses who saw the arrest spread like wildfire on social media and unleashed a wave of indignation among the public.
Alejandro, 25, from Orange, California came to the committee to expose, as a victim, the violence that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are using against non-criminals and the harm they cause to their families. “I saw the videos from Mexico, where I was on vacation. It was very dramatic. I felt a lot of sadness and a lot of anger,” he told EL PAÍS in a telephone interview.
“They were there, maybe looking for someone else, or just doing raids. They saw him doing his job, dressed a certain way and because of his skin color…” he explains, as evidence that the officers used racial profiling to target his father. “It was very violent, very unprofessional.”
Narciso Barranco, a 48-year-old Mexican father of three sons, all in the Marine Corps, was arrested by masked officers while he was working, trimming bushes in the garden of an IHOP restaurant. His arrest was recorded by witnesses, and the videos went viral. They show the officers throwing him to the ground and repeatedly hitting him in the face and head. “Hey! Why are you hitting him?” a bystander can be heard shouting.
A month later, his son Alejandro described the arrest to a Senate subcommittee: “My father was surrounded by masked men who never identified themselves and never presented any type of warrant. Terrified, he ran. They chased him, pointed a gun at him, pepper-sprayed him, and eventually tackled him to the ground and kicked him. After he was handcuffed, these men held him down while another beat him repeatedly in the neck and head area. After all this, they then threw him in the backseat of an unmarked vehicle.”
Narciso has no criminal record; his crime is limited to illegally entering the United States three decades ago. Despite having no criminal history, he was detained for three weeks, first in a Los Angeles center and then in Adelanto, also in the state of California.
Alejandro Barranco outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, June 23, 2025, in Los Angeles.Damian Dovarganes (AP)
Alejandro recalls seeing his father three days after his arrest, at a court hearing. “He was still wearing the clothes he was arrested in three days earlier, and there was still blood on his shirt. He looked very defeated,” he says. During his father’s three weeks in detention, he was only able to see him on two other occasions, also at hearings. He spoke with him every day on the phone. Aside from inquiring about the family’s situation, the conversations revolved around Narciso’s concern that his work commitments be met and that his son complete his daily route.
Narciso was released on bail on July 15 and awaits a hearing on his immigration status. The $3,000 bail (the prosecution had requested $13,000) came from donations raised in a fund established to cover expenses related to his detention. Among other things, those of his lawyer, since, according to Alejandro, the one appointed by the government didn’t even know when his court date was. The funds will also cover medical expenses.
While he was detained, the conditions at the center were unsanitary, according to his son. “They kept him in a cell with between 70 and 100 other people. It only had one bathroom. No shower. No clothes to change into,” he said. In Adelanto, he claimed to have gone 14 hours without water.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the officers’ actions, pointing to a video they said shows Narciso resisting orders and claiming he threw a weed whacker in an officer’s face, though that is not captured on the video.
“The illegal alien ran, then turned and swung a weed whacker directly at an agent’s face,” said DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “He then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent. The illegal alien refused to comply every step of the way — resisting commands, fighting handcuffs, and refusing to identify himself. The agents took appropriate action and followed their training to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve the situation in a manner that prioritizes the safety of the public and our officers.”
Alejandro doesn’t recognize the DHS official’s description of his father. “My dad never wanted to hit them. It would have been clear in the videos, but obviously, it’s not there,” he says. His family knows Narciso is at risk of being deported, but remains optimistic because, as he explains, “he has a lot going for him,” such as being married to an American citizen and having three sons serving in the Navy. Narciso could benefit from the Parole in Place program, which grants legal status to some family members of serving military personnel. Also in his favor is the support he has received from the community and from “many important people.”
The moment Narciso Barranco is detained by members of the Border Patrol in Santa Ana.AP
Alejandro attended the Senate subcommittee at the invitation of Democratic Senator Alex Padilla. The California legislator maintained during the hearing that less than 10% of those detained by immigration agents are accused of serious crimes and that the number of arrests of foreigners with no criminal record has increased 500% under Donald Trump. “A judge has already recently said that there is a mountain of evidence showing that federal agents are illegally using racial profiling based on race, accent, or job title,” Padilla said.
His father’s traumatic experience, however, hasn’t diminished Alejandro’s admiration for the United States. Although his father didn’t dare attend his sons’ graduation for fear of being arrested, he instilled in them respect and love for the country. “My dad and mom made us respect, love, and be grateful for this country,” he says, citing one of the reasons he enlisted in the Navy.
And today, despite the “difficult times” the country is going through, behind the darkness, he sees signs that give him hope for positive changes to come. “This community came together to help, united, and that shows what this country is like.”
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