The Department of Homeland Security is hitting back on claims that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents failed to identify themselves as they detained an illegal immigrant who ran into a Southern California surgery center to escape them earlier this week.
Posting on X, DHS stated:
THE FACTS: ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bullet proof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle. One of the illegal aliens, Denis Guillen-Solis who is from Honduras, fled on foot to evade law enforcement. He ended up near the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center where hospital staff assaulted law enforcement and drug the officer and illegal alien into the facility.
THE FACTS: ICE officers conducted a targeted enforcement operation to arrest two illegal aliens. Officers in clearly marked ICE bullet proof vests approached the illegal alien targets as they exited a vehicle.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 9, 2025
One of the illegal aliens, Denis Guillen-Solis who is from Honduras,… pic.twitter.com/xjxXcMcZnc
DHS added, “The staff attempted to obstruct the arrest by locking the door, blocking law enforcement vehicles from moving, and even called the cops claiming there was a ‘kidnapping.’”
The dramatic scene unfolded Tuesday at the Ontario Advanced Surgery Center, located about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, with more video from inside the center being posted by the Associated Press (AP) with commentary by the Inland Coalition for Immigration Justice, an advocacy group.
Javier Hernandez, with the coalition, claimed the man was a gardener working outside the facility when ICE approached.
Inside, the center’s staff in scrubs got involved, demanding ICE show “a warrant,” Fox News reported.
“Get your hands off of him,” one staff member shouted, the network also reported, shielding the man from an immigration agent. “Let him go. You need to get out.”
The incident caused the nursing website, nurse.org, to pose the question: Can ICE enter medical facilities? It answered by saying that hospitals are no longer formally protected as “sensitive locations” from enforcement restrictions, adopted in 2011 but now rescinded by the Trump administration.
Southern California has become a hotbed of highly publicized confrontations and protests connected with ICE activity, beginning with a riot last month in downtown Los Angeles that caused President Donald Trump to dispatch the National Guard to the city.
This week, as Breitbart News reported, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass got into the mix after protesters confronted Border Patrol agents patrolling downtown MacArthur Park, which has a long history of drug use and illegal activity.
The mayor showed up and demanded agents and a military unit dispatched to protect the agents leave the park, where she claimed children were playing.
Protesters also clashed with federal authorities Thursday during an immigration operation in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles, at a marijuana farm that allegedly employed illegal immigrants.
