A former supporter of President Donald Trump has come out against the president following a heated confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers near Los Angeles, where he was “wrestled to the ground” and taken to a detention center, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday.
“I truly believe I was a target because of my race,” said Jason Brian Gavidia, a Latino American citizen, speaking with NBC News Los Angeles. “I believe I was racially profiled, I believe I was attacked because I was walking while brown.”
Gavidia said he was approached by ICE agents while at his job in Montebello, a majority-Latino city, who immediately began questioning him while shoving him against a gate. The officers took his phone and ID, he said, and ultimately returned his phone, but kept his ID.
Gavidia voted for Trump last year and bears a tattoo with the phrase “We the People” on his back. He now says he regrets the decision and feels “guilty, 100%.”
“He ran on lies, (and) when you lie to us like that, when you say other countries are releasing their jails and letting them into the population, of course you're going to scare the people, of course you're going to brainwash people,” Gavidia said.
“Be real, tell the truth; if you're going to say something, do exactly what you say, don't lie, don't manipulate the people.”
Gavidia is now one of seven plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Trump administration by the American Civil Liberties Union, a suit that resulted in a federal judge issuing a stay preventing federal agents from conducting immigration raids and sweeps based on race, accents, or place of work in several California counties. The Trump administration is pushing to have the stay lifted.
“I’m American, bro!” Gavidia can be heard shouting as he’s being pressed against a gate by ICE officers in a video shared with NBC News Los Angeles.
Gavidia helps educate immigrants on their rights and says he carries a copy of the Constitution with him everywhere. As to his former support for Trump, he told NBC News Los Angeles that he was one of many Americans who had been “manipulated” by the current president.
“We were all manipulated, we were all brainwashed, and now look at us,” he said. “We are all suffering because of it, and I feel guilty, 100%.”
Watch the video below or use this link.