A high school senior who was detained by ICE in Florida in May while his mother was driving him and two of his teenage colleagues to work is speaking out about the violent altercation in which he was told — despite being an American citizen — that he had no rights.
Footage of 18-year-old Kenny Laynez’s violent arrest, reportedly captured on his cellphone, shows an officer telling him, “You got no rights here. You’re an amigo, brother.”
Laynez was born and raised in the United States.
Speaking to CBS News, he said, “It hurts me, hearing them saying that I have no rights here because I look like, um, you know, Hispanic, I’m Hispanic.”
According to Laynez, the car was pulled over because there were too many passengers riding in the front seat, and two passengers, his co-workers, were undocumented, he said.
Footage shows officers using a Taser while detaining the teens, both of whom Laynez says he has not been able to contact since.
“We’re not resisting. We’re not committing any crime to, you know, run away,” Laynez said, recalling the incident.
The high schooler’s phone kept recording after he had been arrested and picked up a conversation between officers where they were discussing shooting the detainees.
“They’re starting to resist more. We’re gonna end up shooting some of them,” one officer says to another.
“Just remember, you can smell that too with a $30,000 bonus,” another officer responded.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection told CBS in a statement that Laynez and his co-workers “resisted arrest” and claimed that immigration agents are experiencing a rise in assaults on the job.
The statement did not mention that a U.S. citizen had been detained, the outlet added.
Laynez recalled events as Florida prepares to deploy 1,800 more law enforcement officers to execute immigration raids ordered by the Trump administration.
Mariana Blanco, the director at the Guatemalan Maya Center, an advocacy group opposing Florida’s pursuit of immigrants, told CBS that, “laws are just… they’re no longer being respected.
“Deputizing these agents so quickly it is going to bring severe consequences,” she added.
Laynez is just one of a handful of young people to be arrested by ICE, seemingly without cause.
In June, students and staff at a high school in Massachusetts staged a post-graduation protest after U.S. immigration authorities detained a pupil who was scheduled to perform with the school’s band during the ceremony.
Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, 18, was driving his father’s car to volleyball practice the day before the ceremony with some of his teammates when he was pulled over by immigration authorities.
Officers said they were looking for Gomes Da Silva’s father, who, according to Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, is residing illegally in the U.S.
During the stop, authorities determined that Gomes Da Silva was also unlawfully in the country and detained him. According to his friends, Gomes Da Silva was born in Brazil but has attended Milford Public Schools in the Boston area since the age of six.
The teen’s arrest coincided with the final day of a far-reaching, month-long illegal immigration clampdown in Massachusetts, coined Operation Patriot, that saw nearly 1,500 people deemed “criminal aliens” detained.
Gomes Da Silva returned home after several days in ICE detainment after a judge released him on a $2,000 bond.
