A federal grand jury indicted two employees of an Ontario surgery center, Jose de Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila, for allegedly assaulting and obstructing ICE officers attempting to detain a Honduran landscaper. According to the Justice Department, the July 8 incident occurred after ICE officers, wearing law enforcement vests and using an unmarked vehicle, pursued three men who pulled into the surgery center’s parking lot. One man, identified as a Honduran national illegally in the U.S., briefly struggled with an officer before fleeing inside with assistance from a medical staffer. Ortega and Davila, both in medical scrubs, then interfered with the arrest, with Davila placing herself between the officer and the migrant and pushing the officer while shouting for him to leave, while Ortega grabbed the officer’s arm and vest. Both face up to eight years in federal prison if convicted.
The migrant was later arrested, held at the Adelanto facility, and ultimately chose voluntary self-deportation, ABC7 reported. Ortega claimed staff were instructed to request identification and warrants before allowing law enforcement to enter the building. The incident unfolded as immigration enforcement continues to generate legal disputes and high-profile cases.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan sided with the Trump administration in a separate deportation case involving a Mexican family who argued they faced cartel violence if removed. The family, who fled Guerrero after threats from the Los Rojos cartel, sought emergency relief to block deportation, but Kagan denied the request without comment. Their claims had already been rejected by an immigration judge, upheld by the Board of Immigration Appeals, and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, leaving the family facing imminent removal despite presenting testimony and evidence detailing threats and violence.