Attorney for Ontario worker calls charge of assault against ICE officers political

Attorneys for the Ontario office workers charged with assault of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers at their office say prosecutors do not have a case on Aug. 19.

Outside the Riverside District Court and immediately following their arraignment, Jose Ortega and Danielle Davila’s attorneys said that the anonymous ICE officers had no right to be in the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, that the government will lose its case, and that the defendants would intervene again if needed.

“We got involved because you can’t be hitting and punching a person and say you’re law enforcement,” said Ortega.

“What they’re telling me is that they did the right thing, and if it happened again, they would do it again. They were in their rights, and did nothing wrong,” said Carlos Juarez, Ortega’s attorney.

“It is obvious. Political arrest,” Juarez said when asked for the reason for the charge.

The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions about the case.

Unidentified ICE officers chased gardener Denis Guillen-Solis into the surgery center on July 8. 

“They (the ICE officers) saw a Latino, three Latinos in a truck, who happened to be gardeners, and that was the basis for accosting them,” Juarez said.

Ortega, a purchasing clerk, and Davila, a materials manager, inserted themselves between the ICE agents and Guillen-Solis, and asked if the agents had a warrant, a video of the arrest shows. 

Attorney Russell Jauregui, who also spoke at the press conference, said he interviewed Guillen-Solis at the Adelanto ICE Detention Center following his arrest. Guillen-Solis told Jauregui that he agreed to be arrested after seeing how the officers were treating Ortega and Davila. Jauregui believes that Guillen-Solis self-deported, because he can not find him on the federal government’s detainee registry.

“What (Guillen-Solis) told me was what you have already heard. It was the ICE agents that were being aggressive. All Davila and Ortega did was try to calm them down. That’s all they did. They were not being aggressive. He remembers hearing them ask for a warrant, which the ICE agents did not present, nor did they identify themselves,” said Jauregui. 

Oliver Cleary, Davila’s attorney, said his client looks forward to testifying.

“(Davila) looks forward to her opportunity to testify about what happened. In her words, she felt what she did was right. She is a mother, a health care worker. Somebody ran into her clinic screaming for help, being pursued by people that did not identify themselves, wore masks and acted in a hostile manner, she did what any person with a heart would do,” Cleary said.

Ortega and Davila were originally charged with two felony counts each, of assaulting a federal officer and conspiracy to prevent a federal officer from discharging their duties. US Attorney Bill Essayli dropped the felony counts in individual motions on Aug. 14 and 15, and refiled for single misdemeanor assault against each defendant. Prosecutors originally approached Davila and Ortega with a misdemeanor plea deal, which the defendants declined.

“To plead guilty, you have to swear under oath that you committed a crime. You can’t stand up and say you did something you didn’t do,” said Cleary, Davila’s attorney.

“My conversation with the attorney’s office was, ‘There’s no case here. You must dismiss it,’” said Juarez.

Inland Empire Law Weekly asked both the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for the names of the ICE officers, the legal theory to support the officers’ entry into the Ontario Advance Surgery Center, and the current status of Guillen-Solis. The request to the DOJ also asked why the charges were decreased from felony to misdemeanor counts, and if the DOJ is establishing that individuals who resist improper entry may be charged with assault.

Neither department answered the questions.

DHS sent an unsigned response to check a July 25 press release, and directed additional questions to the Department of Justice. That press release included a quote from Tricia McLaughlin, assistant DHS secretary. 

“Anyone who actively obstructs or assaults law enforcement, including U.S. citizens, will face consequences which include arrest,” McLaughlin said, according to the release. 

Ciaran McEvoy, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, said the office had no comment on charging decisions or the legality of the ICE officers entering the surgery center. He wrote that there are multiple exceptions to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures. One of the exceptions, he wrote, was “hot pursuit.” 

The hot pursuit exception was discussed in the 2021 Supreme Court case Lange v. California. In that ruling, the Supreme Court found that officers cannot pursue misdemeanor suspects into homes without a warrant.

“The common law in place at the Constitution’s founding similarly does not support a categorical rule allowing warrantless home entry whenever a misdemeanant flees. Like the Court’s modern precedents, the common law afforded the home strong protection from government intrusion, and it generally required a warrant before a government official could enter the home,” the syllabus said.

A Congressional Research Service report on the Lange ruling said that the pursuit of a fleeing misdemeanor suspect does not immediately justify warrantless entry. 

Improper entry to the United States is a misdemeanor, and unlawful presence is not a crime. Jauregui, who interviewed Guillen-Solis in Adelanto, says that the gardener was never charged with a crime.

"It doesn’t matter who you are or where you work, if you assault our agents or otherwise interfere with our operations, you will be arrested and charged with a federal crime," Essayli had said at the announcement of the charges.