ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- As they try to tell the complicated story of what has been happening for the last three weeks on the streets of Los Angeles, the media have been making a big mistake.

Reporters, anchors and columnists need to stop accepting at face value the increasingly dubious claim that these are, in fact, "ICE agents" who are snatching from predominantly Latino neighborhoods an untold number of people who are never seen or heard from again.

Who says the masked men carrying out these abductions without identification or judicial warrants are sworn law enforcement officers working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement? As lawyers say in court, that claim assumes facts not in evidence.

Maybe the media have up to now just assumed that these goons were ICE agents because some of them claim to be conducting an "immigration investigation." Or maybe it's because some of them wear vests stamped with official-looking insignias. Not good enough.

Until more is known, here's what the media should say: "Today, in a largely Latino neighborhood, an individual working at a car wash appears to have been kidnapped by a group of masked men with no identification, warrants or official paperwork of any kind who threw the worker to the ground, punched and manhandled him before tossing him into an unmarked civilian vehicle and driving away. The masked men also shoved witnesses and tried to stop the abduction from being filmed. Anyone with information about this apparent crime should contact local police immediately."

It's been three weeks since the Trump administration invaded Los Angeles with Marines, National Guard and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers.

Yet we still don't know who the people making contact with migrants really are. They're likely independent contractors hired by the Department of Homeland Security who are paid by the hour or being offered a bounty for every immigrant they scoop up.

Some of the masked men may be white supremacist Oath Keepers or Proud Boys who are finally getting the chance to live out a longtime fantasy where they round up as many Mexicans as the family minivan can hold and take them to heaven knows where.

We may not know who these people are, but we have a pretty good idea who they aren't. They aren't police. If you take a good look at the footage taken by witnesses and placed on TikTok, the video evidence suggests that many of the abductors appear to be over-the-hill, out-of-shape, often unarmed impostors who seem to be playing cop.

According to KABC-Channel 7 in Los Angeles, one of the witnesses to these makeshift immigration raids is a woman named Bertha Alicia Guzman. She intervened during a recent raid at a car wash in Torrance and prevented a worker from being detained by, well, whoever these people are. Guzman filmed the intervention. The video shows her telling the worker in Spanish not to answer any questions as a masked man stood next to him. The car wash owner's son, Emmanuel Karim Nicola-Cruz, also questioned the men, telling them they were trespassing on private property. They ignored him. Nicola-Cruz said one of his other employees was shoved against a fence while another was pushed to the ground. Again, remember, all this was done by people who wouldn't identify themselves.

It appears that the Trump administration -- which lies about most things -- has based the entire occupation of Los Angeles on a whopper.

It appears that lot of the people currently snatching Mexicans off street corners all throughout Los Angeles -- because they fit the "profile" of what illegal immigrants look like -- aren't really ICE agents at all.

It was about two weeks ago that this first occurred to me. And I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Blame my upbringing. I know all about cops. I grew up around them. My father was on the job for 37 years.

These people don't act like cops. For one thing, real cops wouldn't let concerned bystanders with phones prevent them from doing their jobs. They might threaten to arrest the bystander for obstructing justice. But they certainly wouldn't scurry away like frightened squirrels.

Who are these masked men? Finding out should be a top priority for the brave men and women of the Los Angeles Police Department. They don't wear masks, and they're sworn to protect and serve the people of their city. It's time for them to get on with the "protecting" part.

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To find out more about Ruben Navarrette and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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