Masked federal agents attempting to make an immigration arrest in San Bernardino fired at a man and smashed his car windows Saturday, leading to a standoff that ended with no arrests and a sharp rebuke by Homeland Security against local police.
“What do you want? What do you want, man?” a man inside the vehicle can be heard asking in a video posted on Instagram by the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
Agents stand outside a locked car with three people inside.
“What do you want, my identification?” another man inside the car asks.
A moment later, the driver’s side window shattered and an officer pushed his hand in through the broken glass, attempting to reach toward the steering wheel.
“Hey, you can’t do that!” one of the men in the car yelled. Moments later, the driver accelerated the car away from the scene.
Popping noises can be heard over the sound of squealing tires.
“They don’t say we are ICE, we are police, they just say, ‘Open the door, open the door,’” Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said in an interview on Sunday. “When the family asked them for ID, the only answer was two broken windows.”
San Bernardino police issued a statement that officers were dispatched at 8:51 a.m. to Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street to investigate reports of shots fired. Officers encountered federal agents who said they were involved in a police shooting with a man who fled in a vehicle. No one was apparently hit by gunfire.
“I was thinking the bullets were going to run through the back window and hit any of us,” a man identifying himself only as Martin told KTLA on Saturday. He said he was a passenger in the back seat of the car and that the other two men in the vehicle were his father-in-law and brother-in-law.
According to Martin, his father-in-law is an undocumented immigrant who has been trying to become a citizen for more than 20 years. He’s also reportedly a homeowner and the owner of a party supply business.
“He’s been here for 23 years and he’s always been a hard-working man,” Martin told KTLA. “There’s no reason he shouldn’t have gotten his green card a long time ago. He’s tried many, many times.”
According to ICE data, as of July 7, only 28.26% of the 3,284 in ICE detention centers in California were considered criminals. The agency defines detainees as criminals if they have a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges.
In a statement, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said two Customs and Border Patrol agents were hit and injured when the man drove off during a vehicle stop, prompting agents to fire at the car.
Hernandez said the family’s video of the encounter disproves DHS’s version of events.
“You can clearly see there were no agents in front of the vehicle,” he said. “There were agents behind the vehicle and to the sides.”
Later, the man called 911 from his home, seeking help and complaining that men in masks tried to pull him over, broke his car windows and shot at him three times. Police officers contacted him in the 1000 block of Mt. View Drive.
At the time, it was unclear to the officers what the suspect was wanted for. Under state law, local law enforcement agencies cannot assist federal officials with immigration enforcement, so the officers left the scene, according to a statement issued by the San Bernardino Police Department.
The California Values Act, formally known as Senate Bill 54, was signed into law in 2017 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. The law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from making resources available to federal immigration enforcement agencies, except to prevent violence. In June 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge brought against the law by the first Trump administration.
Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations agents seeking to arrest the man for assaulting with a deadly weapon — his vehicle — then surrounded the Mt. View Drive house for multiple hours, demanding the driver surrender to police. The family refused to do so.
A large crowd formed in protest, videos posted to social media show. Immigration agents then called San Bernardino police for help at 1:12 p.m. The police created a perimeter to keep the crowd away from the immigration agents, the department wrote in a statement.
Two people were arrested by the police department in connection with crowd control issues, according to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice. But the immigration agents ultimately left empty-handed, about five hours after they first arrived.
“This is basically the Trump administration declaring not just on immigrants, not just on California immigrants, but all of California. This is not normal,” Hernandez said. “This is not something that should be normalized.”
But the incident is not over, he said.
“We want to make sure that the federal government doesn’t sweep this under the rug,” Hernandez said. “There should be a real investigation into this.”
He’d like to see the state of California investigate and possibly sue DHS.
“This is not something we should be accepting as a reality in California or in the United States,” Hernandez said. “They’re conducting these operations illegally, using illegal tactics that a judge has already told them not to use.”
He was referring to a July 14 ruling by a U.S. District Judge banning the administration from indiscriminate round-ups of suspects by immigration agents in seven California counties, including San Bernardino County.
“This administration is operating with impunity,” Hernandez said. “But we have the power as citizens to make noise and make sure that people know what is happening.”
In its statement, the DHS spokesperson criticized local authorities for not arresting the man when it said they briefly had him in custody.
“Later, the San Bernardino Police Department, who were contacted by a federal official assigned to the operation regarding the assault, located the suspect at a residence and briefly had him in custody — only to release him. The subject remains at large,” the statement reads in part.
“This reckless decision came despite the subject’s outright refusal to comply and his wounding of two federal officers. It is yet another tragic example of California’s pro-sanctuary policies that shield criminals instead of protecting communities,” the statement concludes.
On Sunday, Goodman said that local law enforcement’s hands are tied.
“I don’t believe DHS’s criticisms are directed at the San Bernardino PD, but at the flawed legislation that prevents us from being able to help another law enforcement agency when they are in need,” he wrote in a written statement.
“While I do not believe immigration enforcement is our role, and never has been, it troubles me that we have become hesitant to provide basic officer safety support to a fellow law enforcement agency out of fear that we may be perceived as helping ICE.”
Originally Published: August 16, 2025 at 6:58 PM PDT