U.S. Citizen Arrested By ICE in L.A. For 'Forcefully Obstructing' Officers During Raid: 'I Was Racially Profiled'

Andrea Velez, a 32-year-old U.S. citizen residing in Los Angeles, was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month and wrongly accused of "forcefully obstructing" officers during an immigration raid in downtown L.A., her family is saying.

Velez appeared on court Thursday to face charges of assaulting a federal officer while he was attempting to arrest a suspect and was released on $5,000 bail, NBC News reports. She did not enter a plea and is due back in court on July 17.

The citizen and her family, however, deny the allegations. They say that on June 24 she was stepping out of the family car to go to work when ICE agents suddenly surrounded her, forced her to the ground and placed her in handcuffs.

"I was just going to work and everything happened so fast," she recalled. "They didn't identify themselves, so I was scared."

According to the family attorney, Velez's family witnessed her arrest, and her mother and sister immediately called the police as the agents were attempting to take her. LAPD officers responded to the scene and, instead of helping Velez, her family claims, they formed a human shield to prevent onlookers from recording and voicing their concerns over the activity, KTLA-5 reports.

"I have a couple of bruises on my body," Velez, a South L.A. native and a marketing designer, said. "One of [the agents] pushed me to the ground."

Velez's sister, Estrella Rosas, recorded the event, where her screams can be heard. "That's my sister. They're taking her. Help her, someone. She's a U.S. citizen," Rosas said.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that Velez was arrested for "impending an arrest after she forcefully obstructed an ICE officer by making physical contact with him."

Luis Hipolito was also arrested at the same time for allegedly assaulting an ICE officer, she said. McLaughlin said both he and Velez "kept ICE law enforcement from arresting the target illegal alien of their operation."

"Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," McLaughlin said. She added, without citing evidence nor a timeframe, that ICE officers face a 500% increase in assaults.

Velez said she had feared for her life when she was suddenly grabbed by the agents. She believes ICE was targeting other Latino and Hispanic people around her at the time, but she didn't realize what was happening until she was questioned later on.

"They were just telling me that I was being arrested for interfering or resisting arrest," she said. "I don't think I was. I was just resisting because I didn't know where I was going to end up or who was taking me."

"I'm Latina, so I'm pretty sure I was racially profiled," she added, noting that she was simply walking to work when the arrest happened.

Her arrest follows a series of protests against workplace raids in her native Los Angeles, which then resulted in the arrest of thousands of people, many of whom are not only citizens, but have also not committed any crimes.