Four Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Disable Border Patrol Vehicles During Van Nuys Immigration Operation

Federal agents arrested four individuals Tuesday during an immigration enforcement operation in Van Nuys, California, after they allegedly attempted to disable U.S. Border Patrol vehicles using makeshift spike devices.

According to U.S. Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, the suspects deployed rubber or metal strips embedded with nails, aiming to obstruct the operation by damaging agency vehicles. One image posted to X by Bovino showed a strip lodged in a vehicle’s tire.

The arrests occurred outside a Home Depot on Balboa Place. Social media video captured agents tackling a man and detaining others at the scene. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the operation and noted that one of the four arrested individuals also faces charges for assaulting a Border Patrol agent.

Activists quickly responded, denouncing the operation as an act of federal intimidation. At a press conference, Maegan Ortiz, executive director of the Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), identified one detainee as Jenaro Ernesto Ayala, a U.S. citizen and outreach coordinator with IDEPSCA. She said he was present to assist day laborers and called his arrest a “blatant attempt to silence those who defend our communities.”

Ortiz’s organization claims they have been unable to contact Ayala and that legal representatives have been denied access to him at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Credit: CNN Newsource

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