Alejandro Barranco, the son of 48-year-old Narciso Barranco, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and NBC's Jacob Soboroff that he's trying to remain calm and "just give to my dad."
"I just saw him a couple of minutes ago. He's — I've never seen him like this. He's still wearing the same clothes that they got him in. He still has blood on his shirt from the beating," the younger Barranco said. "His eyes are still burning. He hasn't been able to shower. He hasn't been able to wash his face. He says he's in a cage, you can say, with at least 70 other people. No privacy. One toilet. He's received water maybe once a day and very, very little food."
Wallace asked what Barranco said to the three boys that made them want to serve their country. The younger Barranco revealed that his father taught them that they must be thankful and love America.
"He always wanted us to have the best education as well, and just be educated citizens and law-abiding. He never had any hate or any time, any type of dislike towards his country, towards this country," the Marine veteran said.
"It's very hard on us because we always try to bring — we've always tried to help this country out. We gave our lives to this country. It's just not fair. And I don't like the way they're going about this. Honestly, I'm heartbroken because, I mean, I love this country, I love my parents, I love the community. It's just — I don't know, I feel — I feel betrayed," the young man continued.
Statistics from the U.S. military showed that in 2023, 19.5% of active duty service members self-identified as Hispanic or Latino, higher than the U.S. population, Pew Research cited from Census data.
Barranco also said that he believes the border patrol agents were merely in the same place at the same time as his father and happened to see someone handling the grounds at the Santa Ana IHOP.
"I think they were just racially profiling people," Barranco said.
The Department of Homeland Security posted a video on X claiming that the gardener attacked them with a "weed whacker."
"He was shocked," Barranco said of his father. "He was like he was confused. He's like what? He's like when? And I was like, I'm not sure. I'm like, I'm not sure when they're saying that or like how I see the video, but it's natural human movement, natural human reaction. He gets pepper-sprayed like seconds before that. He said he never intended to hurt anyone. He never intended to hurt anyone. And it was just a natural movement."
Soboroff asked as a Marine what would have happened to him if he did something like that while in Afghanistan, and the veteran said punishment would have been severe.
"I promise you, it would have been a war crime, and the situation would have been completely different," Barranco said.
A GoFundMe page set up by a family friend has had nearly 5,000 donations, totaling over $180,000.
"Please help the Barranco family with whatever you can to ensure he is able to receive the proper legal counsel to represent him," the page asks.
See the interview below or at the link here.
- YouTube youtu.be
