Riverside County Case Highlights Accountability for Federal Immigration Agents

This story, originally published by KVCR, contains language that may be inappropriate for young or sensitive readers.

Riverside County prosecutors charged a man claiming to be a federal immigration officer with assault after he pulled a gun on a 17-year-old last November.

Gerardo Rodriguez, 46, was arrested after the incident by Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies at his home near Temecula’s wine country.

The case is moving through the courts as national scrutiny grows over how difficult it is to hold federal agents accountable. Experts claim legal actions in the last decade have curtailed people’s ability to sue, while the teenager’s attorney remains optimistic about holding Rodriguez accountable.

‘He’s just a kid’

In-home surveillance video obtained by independent news outlet L.A. Taco shows Rodriguez walking in the middle of the block on Daybrook Terrace in Temecula, pointing his gun at an incoming pickup truck.

“Stop, stop, slow down,” Rodriguez yells to the truck’s driver on video. “Freeze, police! Put the car in fucking park.”

Deputies said Rodriguez wore a badge around his neck and identified himself as law enforcement. On video, Rodriguez is seen commanding the truck’s driver to get out of the car and sit on the curb.

“You’re speeding in the fucking neighborhood. Come over here, sit down. Sit your ass down,” Rodriguez said. “Do you have a driver’s license?”

Greg Kirakosian, a civil rights attorney based in Los Angeles, said the driver of the truck is his client — a 17-year-old boy who was driving home from a house party nearby.

Kirakosian said witnesses on scene identified Rodriguez as a federal immigration agent, either with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection. Riverside County Sheriff’s deputies said Rodriguez was wearing a badge in a prepared statement, which was shared in November but has since been deleted.

Kirakosian said neighbors stepped in and told Rodriguez to let the boy go, and the sheriff’s press release confirmed that the boy’s father told deputies on scene that Rodriguez stopped his son.

The boy’s parents rushed to the scene with his passport because they feared the encounter was immigration related, Kirakosian added.

“‘You know, why are you doing that? He’s just a kid. He was from down there. Leave him alone,’” Kirakosian said. “And you know, that adrenaline, I guess, wears off, and Rodriguez finally decides that, yeah, he probably shouldn’t be doing what he’s doing and just lets the boy go home.”

The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department arrested Rodriguez at his home after investigators obtained a search warrant and collected evidence related to the incident.

Rodriguez was arraigned in December, according to records obtained by KVCR, where he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment and false imprisonment. Rodriguez pleaded not guilty, and his private attorney, Michael Scaffidi, did not return calls requesting comment.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the case is still under investigation. The agency would not confirm or deny that Rodriguez was employed by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both ICE and Border Protection. ICE officials have told multiple media outlets that Rodriguez was not employed by their agency.

Acting under the ‘color of law’

Before Border Patrol and ICE agents carried out widespread raids in Minnesota this winter, the Department of Homeland Security carried out similar operations across Southern California, including in the Inland Empire. Last August, Mexican immigrant Francisco Longoria had his windows shot out by Border Patrol agents in San Bernardino.

In Ontario, just two months later, 24-year-old U.S. citizen Carlos Jimenez was shot in his shoulder by federal agents during an encounter near a school bus stop. Immigrant rights groups and lawyers are calling for accountability for the agents involved in the shootings.

Meanwhile, Kirakosian said he considers the incident involving Rodriguez and his client a standout case. He believes Rodriguez acted under “the color of law” — a federal civil rights statute that protects citizens from officers using their official authority to violate a person’s Constitutional rights. The rule applies to officers at all times, even if they are off duty or acting outside of their jurisdiction.

“He stopped an individual when he had no right to,” Kirakosian said. “Pulled that individual out and detained him when he had no right to … no justification, no suspicion of any criminal activity … with threats of violence if he didn’t comply with his unlawful commands. I mean, it doesn’t get more of a Fourth Amendment violation than that.”

A spokesperson with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office told KVCR that their decision to charge Rodriguez is based solely on the “evidence, not a person’s position or profession” and that accountability under the law is essential to maintaining public trust.

The DA’s office also said Rodriguez was initially charged with assault by a public officer when the sheriff’s department booked him, but that charge was later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

‘Difficult to prove’

Kevin Johnson is the dean of the UC Davis School of Law, who considers Rodriguez’s situation an “extraordinary case.” “It’s really rare for a state prosecutor’s office or a county prosecutor’s office to bring these kinds of charges against a federal law enforcement officer,” Johnson said. “And I assume at some point, there’ll be efforts to dismiss it before there’s any plea.”

Johnson, an expert on immigration law, said that state court cases involving federal agents are often moved to federal court to be resolved. He added that in many cases, the federal government attempts to intervene to defend its employees.

Johnson also said citizens could attempt to file grievances against federal officers through Bivens action, which are lawsuits that can be pursued by anyone, regardless of immigration status, who has had their Fourth, Fifth or Eighth Amendment rights violated by a federal agent. However, in 2022, the Supreme Court made a decision on a Border Patrol-related case that many lawyers argue provided DHS agents immunity from civil suits.

“[The decision] held that cases against immigration enforcement officers are difficult to prove, in no small part, because those officers are engaged in protecting the national security of the United States,” Johnson said.

He added that Rodriguez appeared to be acting in his personal capacity and may not be shielded by the recent 2022 Bivens court ruling, meaning Rodriguez could be held liable in a civil court. Johnson also said he’s not surprised that a U.S. attorney is not representing Rodriguez.

“I think that his interests, since he’s being prosecuted individually, are separate and distinct from the U.S. government’s interests,” Johnson said. “I think it’s not unheard of for an individual officer in this kind of situation to get private counsel, counsel that’s responsive to him and directed by him.”

The arrest was also notable because Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a candidate for California governor, is an outspoken supporter of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Johnson said he assumes that the sheriff’s arrest of Rodriguez — and the follow-up charges from the DA’s office — could be connected to the growing concern from the public over immigration enforcement actions.

“I think some conservatives are worried about government overreach,” he said. “The false imprisonment of a 17-year-old is the kind of a citizen who’s not subject to immigration enforcement is the kind of thing that would rile people up who feel, this is our community. We shouldn’t be treating citizens in our community like that.”

Kirakosian, the civil rights attorney representing the 17-year-old boy Rodriguez pulled over, said his client preferred not to speak to members of the media about the incident.

“It’s been a tornado for the whole family,” Kirakosian said. “I don’t know how else to put it.”

He added that he was “pleasantly surprised” by the sheriff’s arrest of Rodriguez, but doesn’t expect Rodriguez to be prosecuted, especially as the Trump administration continues to back the actions of federal agents. “I wish that was the trend we were going to start seeing increase with this case,” Kirakosian said.

And he added that he considers the young boy to be lucky.

“Because he was one wrong move away from this ending very differently,” Kirakosian said, “And [Rodriguez] would have said ‘I was scared for my life, and I had to take him down for my own safety.’ And you know, that’s what we’re seeing everywhere else with these agents.”

Rodriguez is scheduled to appear for a pretrial hearing on Feb. 27 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

This story was edited with support from The California Newsroom, a collaboration of public media outlets throughout the state.