Amanda Trebach, a Los Angeles resident who volunteers to document immigration enforcement operations on Terminal Island in San Pedro, found herself early Friday morning on the wrong side of an enforcement action.
She was pinned to the ground, handcuffed and put into an unmarked black van by masked federal agents.
The arrest put a spotlight on the risks faced by a growing number of volunteers who work to document immigration enforcement actions across Southern California.
Federal agents arrested her on suspicion of impeding and obstructing federal law enforcement. However, Trebach was released from the federal detention center in Los Angeles on Saturday night without criminal charges, according to
National Nurses United, a union and professional association of registered nurses.
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You have the 1st Amendment right to observe, take photographs and record video of immigration enforcement in public places, which includes streets and sidewalks, according to the
Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and
Witness, a nonprofit that advocates for the documentation of human rights violations.
Immigration enforcement officials can arrest you for interfering or obstructing an operation if they believe you are getting between a federal officer and the person they’re arresting.
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[Safety tips from activist organization]
- Remain calm.
- Keep a safe distance from immigration enforcement officers and the person who is being arrested.
- Do not interfere with immigration enforcement operations.
- Narrate factual context such as location, date, time, number of immigration officials, badge numbers, whether the officers are on foot or in vehicles, whether the officers are carrying any weapons.
- If an immigration official tells you to back away, comply and record yourself doing so (for example, point the camera toward your feet to show you are moving backward).
- Don’t post the video to social media. Instead, share it with a local advocacy group or rapid response network so they can verify the documented information.
