Caught in video: Federal Ice officials detained a US citizen after stopping the landscaping crew and pulling them out of the van to stop tasting.
US citizen Kenny Raines has been arrested by fpatrol and the Border Patrol
US citizen Kenny Raines, 18, was taken into custody on the way to work by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol, and recorded his arrest by telephone.
- The 18-year-old US citizen was detained for six hours by Florida Highway Patrol and Border Patrol agents.
- His undocumented colleague was also detained and faced deportation.
- Filmed on video, the incident shows the agent using force and taser during the arrest.
- Federal and state agencies that have stepped up immigration enforcement in recent months have declined to comment on the incident.
Palm Beach County, Fla. — Kenny Raines’ cell phone cameras video captured an undocumented nightmare of immigrants when he was arrested. One problem: He is a US citizen.
Filmed on May 2, the video showed the Florida Highway Patrol Officer and Border Patrol agents who showed the 18-year-old landscaper and his three colleagues (one of them) drove the gorgeous building to work.
The camera captured the officer, dragging his co-worker out of the van with his neck, twisting Raines’ arms and pushing him down towards the pavement. The video also recorded the officer who shot one of Raines’ colleagues in Taser, saying he resisted his arrest.
“I have the rights. I was born and raised here,” Raines told the officer.
“You have no rights here. You are a ‘migo’, you’re a brother,” the officer said, referring to his ethnicity. He rushed the 18-year-old into the van.
Laynez was released from a federal facility in Riviera Beach six hours later, with the video still on his mobile phone.
His colleagues, including those who listened, were not documented and were not fortunate. They were moved to Chrome Detention Center in Miami. Laynez said they are on bail but are afraid that if they show up in court they will be arrested.
Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network, recently interviewed Laynez and tried to contact FHP, Ice and Border Patrol for comments on the incident, body camera footage, and multiple requests for arrest reports. None of them responded.
Laynez said he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction without violence simply to get through the incident. He participated in the pretrial conversion program on June 4th. The state will withdraw the charges on July 30 if the program is completed by then.
“They treated us like the dogs they picked up in the street,” Raizes said. “They’re just pulling people and luring hardworking people.”
“We’re not criminals. We were just heading for work.”
Ice arrest spread fear among immigrants
Videos like Laynez show federal agents arresting Day workers leaving immigrant families in fear of Palm Beach County and other countries. Even families with some members documented may not go to school or church.
Jack Cora, a West Palm Beach lawyer, reviewed the footage of Raines and spoke with him about the incident.
He said the footage shows FHP and border patrol agents being exposed to “extreme pressure” to meet their daily arrest and deportation quotas, indicating that their responses have led to an undocumented, “reckless neglect” of both legal immigration and rights of US citizens.
“We should all be angry not only, but also furious at the misconduct,” Scola said. “And all our civil rights are at serious risk if we cannot adequately address that outrageous neglect of others’ civil rights.”
I stopped while heading to work
Kenny Raines was born in 2005 at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach to a single Guatemalan mother legally in the United States but not a citizen. He attended Palm Beach Lakes High School and worked at a landscaping company. There, her mother drove the crew to work. Neither Raines nor his mother work for the company anymore.
Raines said he and his mother met two colleagues at a gas station on May 2nd to go to a landscaping job near North Parm Beach. His colleagues Esdras and Marroquin were undocumented, but neither had a criminal history, said Reigns. This post withholds their last name to protect their family.
His mother hadn’t speeded up, but soon after they crossed the bridge on Singer Island, they heard the police siren. The officer rolled the tinted window and signaled her to hand it over.
The officer asked where they were heading. Laynez said they were going to do the job and the officers received their mother’s license and truck registration and insurance. Officers returned and said that their mother’s license had been suspended.
Reigns said he asked the officer why he pulled them. He didn’t see how officers knew that his mother’s license had been suspended by operating the license plates for his company’s truck.
Reigns said the officer asked if it was “illegal.” Reigns said they weren’t and asked what it had to do with the license.
The van was pulled up and more armed agents flocked to the trucks. A female officer approached the window and ordered her to cut off her cell phone in Spanish.
Reigns said at that moment he instead began recording on his phone: “I thought something was going to happen.”
Attack video
What he filmed on video begins with questions.
“Who’s illegal here?” the policeman asked in Spanish. “People who take longer to answer will receive more fees and spend more time in prison.”
Esdras, who was seen clutching the towel in his hand, raised his hand.
The male agent ordered them to open the door. Laynez grabbed the handle.
“Wait, good luck,” Raines said. “You don’t have the right to do that.”
“Do I have no rights?” the policeman said with a laugh. He reached the car and opened the door.
The video shows the agent grabbing Marrokin with his hair and placing his neck on the arm scammer. Another agent pulled Esdora, called Kevin by his colleague, with his hands tied around his neck.
The video then shows Raines getting out of the car, However, the officer who ordered him to reach the ground pushes him from behind, twists his arms and kneels on the pavement. Esdras stood harshly as three officers tried to push him into the ground. They told him to lie down in English, but Reigns urged him not to resist in Spanish.
US citizen Kenny Raines recorded arrests by FHP, Border Patrol
US citizen Kenny Raines was taken into custody by the Florida Highway Patrol and the Border Patrol on the way to work on May 2, and recorded his arrest by telephone.
“Yes! What are you doing? That’s not how you arrest people,” Raines said.
The video shows the officer pulling out a yellow taser and firing twice into Esdras’ stomach. Raines cried as he slammed against the pavement and saw the convulsions in his body and legs.
Agent pushed his knees against Raines’ back and forced him towards the pavement. Officers later ordered Reigns to stand up, but he said he was too scared to move.
“I’m not going to stand up because you’re trying to do it to me what you were doing to Esdras,” Laynez said. “That’s not the way you arrest people.”
“Please stay quiet,” the officer said.
“I have the right to talk,” Raines said. “I was born and raised here.”
“You have no rights here. You’re a ‘migo’ and you’re a brother,” the officer said in the comment, saying that Raines sounds like racial profiling.
Raines’ mother can be heard crying in the background.
Video record officer laughing at immigrant arrest
Laynez’s phone continued to record on the sidewalk, capturing conversations between the agents over the next four minutes.
“After she got the right spread for him, he was finished,” the officer said. “You’re weird, mate.”
“It was fun,” the agent said with a laugh. “That’s right,” cried another with a laugh.
Another agent said more people are resisting the arrest of immigrants.
“They are starting to resist now,” the agent said. “We’re going to shoot someone.”
In the video, the agent said that Raines had no right to come to the door, “I’ve already told you to come out. If you don’t come out, I’ll pull you out.”
“God, amazing,” the police officer cheered. “Nice!”
“Remember, you can smell it too with a $30,000 bonus,” exclaims another officer. The bonuses mentioned by the officers were not immediately clear.
On the tape, officers say that Raines’ colleagues are resisting arrest, so he should be charged.
“He was advertising now, so we touched,” the agent said.
The phone recording stopped shortly after the exchange and its memory was removed from storage.
The agent confirmed that Laynez’s mother had legal status and issued her a licensed driving ticket. Reigns said he told them he was a US citizen and showed them a photo of his Social Security card. They still took Reigns into custody.
Laynez said before leaving, the officer held his mother’s driver’s license in her face and tore it in half.
US citizens spent six hours in detention facilities: what he saw
When she arrived at the Riviera Beach facility, Raines said she saw a line of men. Most spoke Spanish and wore construction clothes like he himself. The two looked like he was 17 or 18 years old.
Raines said he appears to be the only person in the stuffed room where he spoke English. He said the man told them he had been in custody for hours without water or food. Laynez wanted to use the bathroom, but the available toilets were open, with no doors or covers.
Almost four hours later, the female officer who took them into custody took Reigns to the room and asked for his birth three times, despite him having already written it down for another officer. Finally, she came out with a ziplock bag with his cell phone, wallet and headphones.
In Spanish, she asked him to release it. Raines said he told him he needed to confirm if he had filmed a video of his arrest.
Laynez said he unlocked his phone, closed all the apps and locked it again. He refused to open it and said he refused to place it on the table.
He said she said she would wait in that room until he opens it. She asked again about his birth date. Reigns said he trembled. That was his password.
Laynez said he threatened to threaten the charges if officers did not unlock the phone, but someone who seemed to be a supervisor interrupted them. Reigns said the supervisors said that because he is a US citizen, Reigns should not be in that room.
The supervisor said it was all he could do was take Raines’ fingerprints and record that he was at the facility. He then told Reigns that he could not leave without signing the papers and had to show up in court.
“What did I do?” Raines said he asked while signing. “I did nothing. Why should I present myself in court?”
According to the arrest report, Raines said he was charged with obstructing non-violent police. In a copy of the report Laynez provided to the Palm Beach Post, officers wrote that Esdras resisted his arrest. Laynez is not mentioned.
Six hours later, Raines left the door to the Riviera Beach building and said he had ordered an Uber home. He made almost 100 missed calls from his mother.
Reigns said footage of the arrest bothers him, but he doesn’t regret filming.
“I basically have no evidence or anything,” Raines said. “And no one would believe what happened, or how they escalated the situation.
“There may be many more unrecorded events.”
Email Valentina Palm in vpalm@pbpost.com Follow her with the X of @valenpalmb.
