Martin Rascon was riding in his brother-in-law’s pickup truck on Aug. 16, on the way back from an errand, when the vehicle stopped. Assuming they stopped at a light or for traffic, the San Bernardino resident looked up from his phone.
“But to my surprise, I was instead met with four men in face masks, sunglasses and baseball caps, and guns drawn, pointed straight at us, walking straight toward our car,” Rascon told members of Congress Wednesday, Feb. 3.
WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 03: Martin Daniel Rascon speaks during a public forum on violent use of force by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents, at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on February 03, 2026 in Washington, DC. The forum, hosted by Democratic lawmakers, is hearing testimony from Brent and Luke Granger, whose sister Renee Good, was shot and killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis and Marimar Martinez, who survived after being shot by CBP agents in Chicago. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)Rascon spoke publicly for the first time this week, at a forum hosted by Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, about the incident in which agents smashed the vehicle’s windows and fired at the driver, Francisco Longoria, Rascon’s now-father-in-law.
“Seconds after they started pounding on the windows, one of the men broke the driver’s side window, punched Francisco in the face, and began reaching into the car,” said Rascon, 23, a U.S. citizen. “At the same time, a man on the other side of the car broke the passenger window, where Jonathan was sitting, and began reaching into the vehicle.”
Francisco Longoria then drove “through the only open pathway down the street, hoping to be driving toward safety,” Rascon said. “We were instead met with gunfire. After we had passed the men, one of the four men attempted to murder us after we passed by. He fired and made contact with the passenger side of our car multiple times.”
Popping noises can be heard over the sound of squealing tires in Rascon’s video, which was posted on Instagram shortly after the incident took place by the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
“Any one of those bullets could have killed me or two people that I love,” Rascon said.
The Department of Homeland Security later said the stop was part of a targeted enforcement operation. The department alleged Longoria drove at Customs and Border Patrol officers, striking two of them.
“In response to this violent act, a CBP officer was forced to discharge his firearm in self-defense,” the department’s statement reads.
San Bernardino Police Department records, obtained by the Southern California News Group through a California Public Records Act request, contradict ICE’s statement.
San Bernardino police officers were dispatched at 8:51 a.m. to Acacia Avenue and Baseline Street to investigate reports of shots fired. The incident report refers to the men who stopped Longoria as U.S. Marshals.
“MARSHALL WAS NOT STRUCK,” an update at 9:07 a.m. reads. “MED AID WILL BE FOR A SCRAPE TO THE ARM.”
Immigration officers later went to Longoria’s house on the 1000 block of Mountain View Avenue, triggering an hours-long standoff with neighbors as they tried to get him and his family to go outside.
“Those four men were asked to identify who they were looking for, but they had zero idea as to who they were even targeting,” Rascon told the members of Congress Wednesday.
More than two dozen San Bernardino police officers responded to the stand-off shortly before 2 p.m., according to the incident report.
“HOSTILE CROWD — NEED TO START PUSHING CROWD PAST CAUTION TAPE,” an update at 2:04 p.m. reads.
Pepper spray was “deployed” at 3:34 p.m.
The immigration officers left after 4 p.m. without detaining Longoria or anyone in his family. Two people were arrested by the police department in connection with crowd control issues, according to the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.
San Bernardino police critcized DHS, saying the agency acted “recklessly” because Longoria wasn’t taken into custody.
Under California law, state and local law enforcement are limited in how they can interact with federal immigration efforts. The California Values Act, also known as Senate Bill 54, was signed into law in 2017 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. It 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.
Twelve days later, ICE agents returned to Longoria’s house at 4 a.m. Aug. 28. They had a warrant for assault on a federal officer for allegedly striking ICE officers with his truck when he drove away on Aug. 16.
“The men breached our front doors by breaking the locks and yelling that we needed to come out of the house with our hands up,” Rascon said.
Longoria appeared in a Riverside courtroom 10 hours later, where a judge dismissed charges he assaulted a federal officer during the Aug. 16 incident for lack of evidence. ICE officials took him into custody after the hearing.
Longoria has lived in the United States for 23 years, according to his attorneys, but has repeatedly had applications for citizenship denied. ICE has called him a “criminal illegal alien,” but his country of origin has not been shared publicly.
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Others who have been the target of force by ICE during President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown also spoke during Wednesday’s forum. They included Luke and Brett Ganger, the brothers of Minneapolis woman Renee Good. Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent on Jan. 7. Marimar Martinez, who was shot five times by a Border Patrol agent in Chicago, and Aliya Rahman, a Minneapolis resident who was dragged out of her car by immigration agents, also spoke.
Although the Trump administration has repeatedly said it’s targeting “the worst of the worst” — including terrorists, gang members and violent criminals — in the immigration sweeps that began soon after his second inauguration last year, ICE’s own data says something different.
According to ICE data, as of Jan. 8, there are 6,280 people in ICE’s seven detention centers in California. The agency categorizes 28% of them as criminals and 18% are categorized as “Threat Level 1,” the highest level, based on the severity of their “criminality” and how recently it occurred. The agency defines detainees as criminals if they have a criminal conviction or pending criminal charges.
Last month, Garcia, the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, vowed to impeach U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem if she isn’t fired or doesn’t resign.
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