Officials at the Ruben Salazar High School in the Southern California city of Pico Rivera were horrified after footage appeared to show an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent urinating in public on the premises of the facility.
According to The New York Times, "The sight of federal agents alone was alarming on the morning of June 17, a Tuesday, less than two weeks after the Trump administration sent the National Guard to the Los Angeles region to protect federal officials who had ramped up their raids targeting undocumented immigrants. Then, the agents, some wearing fatigues, emerged from the vehicles. At least eight of them ducked behind storage containers on campus, some peering over their shoulders. In the shadows, one at a time, the men appeared to relieve themselves, based on footage captured by overhead security cameras."
Pico Rivera, just southeast of downtown Los Angeles, is a city with a 90 percent Latino population.
Officials with the El Rancho Unified School District "said the agents were not allowed to be on school grounds, let alone use the blacktop and walls of storage containers as impromptu urinals," the report continued.
Public urination is usually charged as a minor nuisance in California, but officials said it could be more serious if "the agents violated California law by exposing themselves in public and potentially to minors."
“Any reasonable person, of any profession, entering Salazar where the ICE agents were urinating would clearly recognize the surroundings to be those of a school where minors are taught,” said the district.
The district sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Todd Lyons, the head of ICE, calling for an investigation. The district also wanted the names and badge numbers of the agents.
“These actions raise alarming and pressing questions regarding ICE’s behavior and judgment, as well as concerns about the rights and well-being of those involved, including the ERUSD community,” the district said. “This behavior has no room in a K-12 educational setting.
This is not the first time ICE officers' conduct around schools has come under controversy since ramping up nationwide mass deportation projects under the Trump administration. In April, agents at two elementary schools in Los Angeles allegedly lied to school officials that they had permission from parents to do a "welfare check" on certain immigrant students.