“Pull over you fucken' wetback,” yelled a man in a white truck.
Natalie [last name withheld] was getting off work near USC on Tuesday. She ordered her Uber as she did on most days and waited for her ride, but thought it was strange when her Uber was right in front of her, but didn't stop and circled around the village another time. The Uber driver made his way around to her again and she got into the vehicle on West Jefferson Blvd. All of a sudden, a white truck almost slammed into traffic, trying to pull up next to the driver's side of the vehicle she was in. She initially assumed the man was just an angry driver.
“Pull over beaner,” yelled the man in the white truck,
Footage shows the man spitting at the passenger side of the Uber vehicle, then pulling out a clipboard that read “Recovery Agent LIC # ICE.” The man points to his brown hat and holds a walkie talkie in one hand, then flips off the vehicle.
The man spit at the her and her driver about 5 times while the window was closed, said Natalie.
He was switching lanes, swerving, revving his engine, driving recklessly and erratically trying to get the Uber to pull over, she said.
That’s when Natalie called 911. She believed the man was impersonating an ICE agent. The 911 dispatcher told her they would send a patrol car over, and urged her to get somewhere safe. The man in the white truck chased them for a few more blocks until he turned onto Hill St. Natalie said she kept looking out for a police patrol car, but none came. The dispatcher told her that she would get a follow-up call back the same day, but Natalie did not receive a phone call back.
Both Natalie and her Uber driver were scared. They are both Latino.
Her Uber driver told her the man in the truck had started following him about two minutes before he had picked her up and added that he was scared because the man had taken pictures of him.
“For both of us, I can say it did feel like we were in danger,” said Natalie. "The man was already spitting at the car. We didn’t know what else he was going to do."
Natalie says the encounter with the man lasted for 20 minutes. The entire time, the Uber driver was trying to get away from the man in the white truck, said Natalie, but they were stuck in traffic.
@fresababyy Los Angeles people. BEWARE OF THIS MAN PRETENDING TO BE ICE AND HARRASSING DRIVERS ON THE ROAD. I was in an uber when this man pulled up next to us, calling us slurs and trying to get us to pull over. He began spitting at the vehicle. And continued to call us “wetbacks” If anyone knows any information please let me know. Be safe yall #fyp #losangeles #ice #fypシ
♬ me va a costar - Kevin Kaarl
After she arrived at her destination, she went to the Newton Community Police Station to file a report. The officers she spoke with told her they would keep a lookout for the man. When she explained that she believed the man was impersonating an ICE agent, they told her they would “try their hardest to find his vehicle.”
Los Angeles Police Department told L.A. TACO they were unable to locate a radio call to the area where this incident happened.
“Looking at the video, it's just unfortunate we have people trying to take advantage of the incompetence of ICE. The community has to be informed and question everything, unfortunately,” said Robert Simon, a trial attorney at The Justice Team Law Firm.
Impersonation of a federal agent can result in a felony charge, and violates statute 18 USC 912 of the United States Penal Code.
This incident could be categorized as an assault, hate crime, and impersonation of an officer, according to Simon.
L.A. TACO reached out to DHS and ICE for comment on this incident and to confirm if the individual in the truck is an ICE agent. We will update this article if we hear back.
The “No Vigilantes Act” and "No Secret Police Act” were signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Sept. 20. Both laws attempt to protect California residents from agent imposters.
“The public is in fear regardless of whether documented or not. No one knows who is real and who is not,” says Simon. “The people in the best position to stop this is DHS. Tell your officers to take off the masks. Wear identification. Show warrants. Wear body cams. It’s in their best interests. And ours.”
The FBI recently issued a memo urging federal immigration agents to clearly identify themselves, citing five incidents of federal immigration agent impersonation, first reported by Wired.
There have been several documented incidents of federal immigration agent impersonations over the past several months. There have been at least two dozen incidents of people impersonating ICE agents to rape, kidnap, rob and assault people, according to a report by CNN.
“I want people to get the message that us Latinos need to be safe about our surroundings. I noticed comments under my video with the racial fight between Latinos and blacks and that’s not what I want,” said Natalie. "I want us to be united and work together to take action against the man who’s impersonating an ICE agent or anyone else, for that matter, who does that."
