The Marine veteran son of a California gardener seen in a graphic video being repeatedly struck on the head by a masked Customs and Border Patrol agent and chased at gunpoint is pushing back against government statements that his father attacked agents with a weed trimmer.
The arrest of Narciso Barranco, 48, in Santa Ana on Saturday has drawn national attention as videos have been posted showing an agent pinning Barranco, who is undocumented, to the pavement with his knee on his shoulder blade. The agent repeatedly smacks Barranco’s face and head as he tries to pull his right arm behind his back to handcuff him, while other officers try to hold Barranco down.
Initial videos of the arrest have been countered with videos from the administration, which has said Barranco assaulted the officers with his weed trimmer.
The Department of Homeland Security posted a video Tuesday — the second it has posted — showing Barranco swinging his weed trimmer as he turns around toward two immigration agents who are following him down a busy street with guns drawn and pointed at him.
DHS said in a statement Monday that Barranco ran, then turned and “swung a weed whacker directly at an agent’s face. He then fled through a busy intersection and raised the weed whacker again at the agent.”
Narciso’s son Alejandro Barranco, 25, a Marine veteran, told MSNBC on Tuesday that had he treated a detainee the same way while he was serving as a Marine, “it would have been a war crime.”
“You see in the video where my dad is running with the weed whacker, there’s a so-called agent running with his gun and pointing it sideways at a vehicle,” said Alejandro, 25. “At what point in our training are we taught to hold our gun sideways? It’s always both hands on the gun and your finger off the trigger.”
DHS told NBC News that its officers used the minimum amount of force and followed training in using minimum force necessary. It said they prioritized the safety of the public and officers.
Alejandro said he asked his father, whom he had visited at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, about the assault allegations.
“When he heard this, he was like, he was shocked, he was confused. He’s like, when?” Alejandro said. “It’s natural human movement, natural human reaction. He gets pepper-sprayed before, like seconds before that. He said he never intended to hurt anyone; he never intended to hit anyone. It’s just natural movement.”
Alejandro said in an NBC News interview that he disagreed with DHS’ assertion that officers used minimal, appropriate force.
“It was the maximum, right before using lethal force, because they were beating his head, four 200-plus guys, 200-plus pound agents or whatever they were, beating a 5-foot-7-inch, 150-pound guy with no type of weapon, so I don’t think it was the minimum, and I don’t think they handled it professionally,” he said.
Agents in the video are masked. Alejandro said his father, who has lived in the United States for decades, most likely didn’t know who the agents were when they tried to take him, got scared and ran. He said he believes the agents were racially profiling his father when they tried to take him.
Alejandro has been concerned about conditions at the detention center where his father is held. He said that when he saw him at the facility Tuesday, his father was wearing the same clothes as when he was arrested, that he had not been able to wash his face or shower, that he had blood on his shirt and that his eyes were burning. Alejandro said his father told him he is being held in a cage with at least 70 other people, with one toilet and no privacy, and that he has received water “maybe once a day” and “very, very little food.”
“I am heartbroken,” said Alejandro, whose two younger brothers are active-duty Marines. “I love my parents. I love the community. I feel betrayed.”
President Donald Trump deployed hundreds of Marines in Los Angeles, as well as National Guard members, during protests this month against the administration’s immigration policies, including some that turned violent. Similar to another Marine who spoke to NBC News, Alejandro said he has mixed feelings about the deployment of Marines when many are children of immigrants like him.
“I know they’re taking orders and just doing their jobs. … I know some of them are probably confused or they feel hurt, as well, because I’m pretty sure a lot of their family members are also undocumented,” he said.
Service members’ families and spouses can apply to get green cards or be “paroled” in the United States, giving them work authorization. Alejandro said the family was trying to do that for his father and will continue with the paperwork while trying to get him released from detention.
NBC News reported Sunday that another Marine veteran is fighting the detention of his wife and mother of his two young children, one of them a 3-month-old infant. She was arrested when she appeared for a green card appointment on an outstanding removal order.
Alejandro said it was because of his father that he and his brothers joined the Marines.
“My dad and mom, they’ve always taught us to respect this country, to be thankful for this country and to just be appreciative of all the opportunities this country offers for us,” he said.
The Trump administration had briefly paused arrests of restaurant, hotel and luxury and agricultural workers after Trump said they were “good workers.” But the administration reversed itself.
Alejandro said his father is a hard worker, with no criminal record. He said his father’s first worry when they spoke the day after he was arrested was finishing the job he was doing at an IHOP restaurant when the arrest happened.
“He asked me to talk to the manager at the IHOP and make sure that he knew that I was going to be taking over,” Alejandro said.
Alejandro said he still is feeling optimistic and knows something will happen to help his father.
“It doesn’t make me love my country less,” he said. “It makes me love it more because I see all these people standing up for my dad, and it’s, just, this country is all about, you know, coming together as a community, loving each other and helping each other out so that this country can look the best, whether it’s landscape or just people in general.”