Deaf teen in California describes violent arrest by federal agents

(CBS, KYMA) - A deaf 18-year-old high-school student has described how he was violently arrested by federal immigration agents in Los Angeles on January 24, and said he was then denied access to a sign-language interpreter.

Anthony Paredes, a senior at Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, said agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tackled him to the ground, hurting his chest, while he was taking part in a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles.

He was released after several hours and given a court date of April 1.

Video of the arrest showed Paredes being chased down, tackled, and arrested by multiple armed officers.

Other protesters, including the person filming, can be heard shouting "he's deaf" and "please don’t brutalize him."

One officer responds, saying "I hear you" to the person filming the video.

On January 31, several local groups, including Union del Barrio, Educator Power 2026, and the Association of Raza Educators held a rally in support of Paredes outside the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) offices, calling for the charges against Paredes to be dropped and for ICE agents to leave Los Angeles.

Paredes, using sign language, told the Council de Manos, a Latino-led deaf advocacy group, that he had attended the January 24 protest after reading reports about the killing of Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis that morning, according to a sign-language interpretation provided by Council de Manos.

Paredes said he believes he was targeted because of his disability, and said officers did not provide sign-language interpreters while he was in custody and ignored his requests to use a bathroom.

"They shrugged at me, they didn't care because I'm deaf," Paredes said.

Paredes' mother, Guadalupe Diaz, told the Council de Manos that the DHS officers had violated her son's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and also accused DHS of lying to her about providing him with an interpreter.

"They told me they provided him with interpreters when he was detained, but that wasn't true, and they accused him of not following the rules, but how can he do that if he can’t hear?" Diaz said during the demonstration, according to La Opinion."