Bulwark Takes - Masked Agents Violently Beat Father of US Marines, Shove Into Unmarked Vehicle

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Tim Miller discusses disturbing footage of the brutal beating, pepper spraying and detainment of father of three Marines by masked men in U.S. Border Patrol vests while working his landscaping job in Santa Ana, CA. Footage from @santaanaproblems on Instagram

Hey everybody, Tim Miller from The Bullwork. I want to show you this video that is pretty horrifying coming out of Santa Ana, California. It is regarding the treatment of, I guess, alleged undocumented migrant by masked ICE officers and it looks like potentially other types of law enforcement as well. They are brutalizing him and they're treating him in a manner that is wholly outside of what we should expect from law enforcement, you know, barring a situation where there is a real violent threat. And so I want to show this video to you. I want to everybody to kind of just see it all with their own eyes, then I want to talk

about it on the other side. I want to talk about what we've learned about this man. He's got three sons that served in the Marines. So it's a family that has lived here, worked here, served the country in the military, and this is how they're being treated. Let's watch it together. I'm going to get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a

little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a You know, I want to caveat. Sometimes in these videos, you know, maybe there's something you haven't seen.

I remember, I have been guilty of this at times before, seeing a video of a police officer as the action and not knowing that they had been assaulted or they were charged at by the victim or by the perpetrator, as the case may be. And so, there might be something we don't know here. But here's what you do know. This man is on the ground. He is getting his head bashed in. And we just seem getting bashed on while he's on the ground, not not in a position where it seems like he could be a threat in any way. He's surrounded by big officers, five or six big officers. He's getting hit.

There's a pause. It's getting hit again. The camera photographer takes out. This is on a Santa Ana Instagram page that kind of monitors what's happening in Santa Ana on Instagram. We'll link it here in the show notes to credit the person that took the video. Santa Ana problems at Santa Ana problems on Instagram. person that took the video, Santa Anna Problems. That's Santa Anna Problems on Instagram.

And so then you see again, these like GI Joe ass motherfuckers, like fully masked, big glasses on. You know, like you can't see anything. You can't see a hint of their skin. Like, what is this? This is not how we do police work in a free country You don't just get to beat dudes and avoid all accountability Because you're dressed like you're the one that's going to rob a bank

Okay, when you're the cops, you're not supposed to be dressed like the fucking bank robbers What is like totally wrong and then I could then they're jamming this guy into an unmarked car They're not even a cop car You know the reports are that he was scared and was running away I'd be fine. I don't you know we'll see like every as everything shakes out. We'll continue to monitor this for you guys, but like Let me tell you I'd be fucking scared. Guys pull up in a unmarked SUV, hop out. They got, you know, um, commando vests on,

they got masks, like you don't know what's happening. They're shouting at you. Yeah. I'd be, I'd be pissing my pants. I'd be scared. I don't know what I'd do. I might run. I might call for my mom. That is frightening. If the person is alleged as to be a serial rapist or something and the police feel like they need to catch them off guard because they've been avoiding police, right? Like maybe there's a circumstance where this type of police work is necessary, but for immigration enforcement?

Like, it's horrifying. I know what you learn about the family. So his name is Narquiso Barranco. I want to shout out Santanaro.org and KTLA in Los Angeles. I'm going to take this information from, as I mentioned, he has three sons all served in the military. Santanaro talked to Alejandro, who is the oldest son, a Marine veteran, had served in Afghanistan.

At least one of the sons had served in Afghanistan. And here's what he said. He always were trying to put food on the table for us and my mom. He was always careful. He always did his taxes on time. He never caused any problems. He's known as a kind and helping person by everyone in our community. My parents always taught me respect, respect everybody, love your country.

He has none, no criminal history. It makes me really mad that I wasn't there to help him out. At the time of this taping, both Santanaro and KTLA had reached out to police and CBP and Santa Ana police officials and not yet heard back. Alejandro also said that his father was pepper sprayed in addition to being repeatedly punched in the face and that he was working as a landscaper at the IHOP when he was taking it. I like this is what I say this in every video, but I think it's important, you

know, especially if there are folks that are coming to this video who maybe are more sympathetic toward the idea of deportations than I am, or at least deportations of nonviolent people have been in this country, have been working, have been following the rules. There are a lot of ways to deport people. I mean, Obama deported a lot of people. There are a lot of ways to deport people. I mean, Obama deported a lot of people, okay? There are a lot of ways to deport people. There are ways to do so with dignity. There are ways to do so that are worthy of a free country that is a nation of immigrants, right? There are ways to do so in a way that's worthy of the service of the family members of these migrants, of people that are here legally, of kids, spouses in many of these cases,

who are here legally, in this case, who serve this country. You know, if you've decided that the right thing to do is deport somebody that came here illegally 20 years ago or whatever, and is now just doing their job, mowing the lawn at IHOP. You think that it somehow serves this country for that person to leave because you want, I don't know, Native Americans, not actual Native Americans, mind you, but people that were born in America

to take that job mowing the lawn at IHOP. All right, that's a position I disagree with. That's a position that, you know, is, is one that, all right, that's a position that I disagree with, but that's a policy debate. We're having a policy debate. What I'm talking about is this just totally authoritarian fascist insane behavior of mass guys grabbing people on the street and sending them into detention centers or sending them back out of the country or sending them to a third country and putting them in a gulag as we've done in a couple hundred cases. Like that is totally unnecessary.

This man, you know, they could have come up to him and said, sir, let me see your papers. If he doesn't show his, you know, if he is not legal, they could say, all right, you know, you have a hearing at this court, or you have X number of days to self deport, or here, we're going to fine you and and give you a path to earning citizenship, right? There are gazillion different policy opportunities between letting

everyone in the country stay and having no laws and having no And I think that basically everyone who is not a sadist, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader,

who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, who is not a political leader, into the ground. Okay? There's like a huge policy space between those two people, two things. And I would think that basically everyone who is not a sadist, like, and who is not, who does not want this to be like some sort of authoritarian state where people are not allowed to come and visit here, anyone else, even quite conservative people, even people who have quite strong views when it comes to immigration, I would think could agree that the right approach is

not to have an unmarked vehicle drive up to an IHOP and then have six guys with masks on, not identifying themselves, tackle a dude, pepper spray him, and beat his head into the ground. I think we can all agree on that. But let me tell you this. Let me tell you who doesn't agree on it. Steven Miller and Tom Hellman. They're fine with this. They're fine with this. They want it to happen. So it's important.

We keep showing these videos. We keep talking about it because I still believe that on balance, the American people are not for this. We just need to show it to them. So. I still believe that on balance, the American people are not for this. We just need to show it to them. So maybe that belief will not be born out. I don't know. But I just have a little flicker of hope about the American people at this point.