ICE Raid Sparks Outcry After Agents Enter Surgery Center Without Warrant: 'This is Really Scary'

An incident involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at a California medical clinic has drawn criticism from immigration advocates and sparked questions about federal enforcement tactics.

The incident took place this week, when ICE officers pursued 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis, an undocumented Honduran national, into the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, where he sought refuge. Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers had been working outside the building when agents wearing masks and bulletproof vests approached them.

"They basically just started running after him," said Javier Hernandez of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, speaking to KTLA. "[Solis] then ran inside of the clinic... to seek shelter."

A video recorded during the incident and shared by Homeland Security shows clinic staff confronting the agents, telling them to leave the private property and remove their hands from Guillen-Solis. Staff asked for identification and a warrant, but according to Hernandez, "they never did" show either.

The Department of Homeland Security's X account captioned the video saying Guillen-Solis had "fled on foot to evade law enforcement" and that the surgical center's staff had "assaulted law enforcement" and "attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door."

Hernandez, however, rejected that version of events, stating to KTLA that clinic staff locked the door before two other agents arrived. When the agents realized the door was locked, they tried to break the door, he said.

"This is really scary," Hernandez said. "We're seeing an overreach by the federal government. Every day we are seeing them try new tactics and if we are not pushing back, we are not fighting back, what we are seeing is the end of our democracy."

Guillen-Solis is currently being held at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles. He has lived in the U.S. for three years and had been working to support his ill mother in Honduras, according to CBS News Los Angeles. His family has launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal expenses. No charges have been filed against clinic staff.