Widely-shared video taken in downtown LA shows arrest of man at immigration check-in, ICE says

A video shared widely across social media last week shows an arrest made at an office where people with active immigration cases check in with a private surveillance company, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has confirmed.

The video shows a man pinned against a wall by three people wearing masks on a sidewalk in downtown L.A. He cried out for help, yelling in Chinese, “Help me. . . I-C-E.”

“Jin Shan,” the man said when an onlooker asked for his name, his face against a metal door.

LAist has not been able to contact the man or his relatives.

Three more unidentified people came to the scene while the man was detained and put him in the backseat of an unmarked car before driving him away.

The video sparked thousands of comments with questions about who took the man and why.

ICE did not provide LAist with the man’s name, give a reason for his arrest or say whether he remained in agency's custody. A spokesperson did acknowledge that he was arrested at an Intensive Supervision Appearance Program office.

“The arrest depicted… happened at an ISAP office,” the ICE spokesperson said in an email to LAist.

The spokesperson also shared a statement from DHS, which said “ICE has been conducting arrests of aliens with final deportation orders in ICE’s ATD-Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP).”

The spokesperson did not say whether the man arrested in the video had received a court order to be removed.

The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program refers to an alternative to detention for people whose immigration cases are moving through the system. People in the program are required to appear at regular check-ins and may be required to wear an electronic monitoring device. This incident is one of many recent arrests of people appearing for regular check-ins with immigration officials. Immigration experts previously told LAist that detaining people at these check-ins is a “dramatic shift” in immigration enforcement tactics.

Data from ICE show that for every one person who remains in ICE custody after being initially detained by immigration enforcement officers, three are enrolled in alternative programs like ISAP and must regularly check in while their case is in court. More than 15,000 people were in such programs in the L.A. area as of June 14.

What people saw

Video of the arrest showed it taking place outside 316 W. 2nd St. near a city parking violations bureau office.

One bystander said she had heard the man’s screams for help while she was in the city parking office. The bystander did not want to be named because she said she was afraid of retaliation from federal agents, but shared a video she took of the incident with LAist. She said she stepped outside and couldn’t believe what she saw.

“ I walked in on that man pinned against that wall,” she told LAist. “Honestly, it was a very helpless situation.”

She said the group never identified themselves or said why they were arresting the man, and they did not respond when she went outside and asked what was going on. She said she walked around their car, which was not marked as a law enforcement vehicle and had both license plates removed.

The bystander said she was concerned the masked group was going to hurt the man.

“It was so unnecessary the way they dragged him,” she said. “They lifted him off the ground from his legs, up into the air.”

They then put him into the car and drove off.

Though the man was screaming, the bystander said she never saw him act aggressively toward the masked group.

LAist talked with several people who work nearby, and a few said they had either heard the man’s calls for help or were told about it soon after. Some of the people we talked with, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation, said they never knew there was an immigration office nearby.

At the ISAP office

An LAist reporter went to the office to learn more about the man's arrest.

The ISAP office, run by a private company called BI Incorporated, is tucked away down a hallway and up an elevator on the fourth floor.

Even people with appointments could be seen struggling to find the entrance, sometimes stopping to ask directions since there are no signs pointing the way.

A half dozen people waited inside the office.

LAist talked with the attorney of one woman who was in the waiting room. The lawyer asked that he and his client not be named out of fear of retaliation by ICE.

The lawyer said he had seen the video of the arrest, and while he has had clients be arrested, he said he had never seen someone taken away from a check-in.

BI Incorporated has not answered questions from LAist about why the man was arrested or whether the arrest was planned with ICE before he arrived.

The lawyer said his client was nervous for her appointment.

“She’s scared to come because she’s heard those rumors,” the lawyer told LAist, referring to rumors of the arrest last Monday. “She’s afraid she’ll come and won’t be able to get out.”