Homeland Security Reportedly Tackled and Assaulted a Deaf Teenager at Protest
Another day, another unjustifiable video showcasing the absolute disregard for humanity and the lack of de-escalation training at Homeland Security.
In downtown Los Angeles, federal immigration agents tackled an 18-year-old deaf student to the ground during a protest, and then proceeded to cite him for not obeying the commands he could not hear.
In videos posted to Instagram on January 24, armed agents from the Department of Homeland Security chase and aggressively tackle Anthony Paredes, a deaf high school senior wearing a red, green, and white poncho, as he protests. As the agents pin him to the pavement, witnesses can be heard shouting, “He’s deaf! He can’t hear!” and asking the agents to stop the action.
They didn’t.
“He’s disabled, and they took advantage of that,” Paredes wrote in a statement. “They targeted me because I’m deaf.”
What exactly caused the chase remains unknown. The DHS did not respond to media requests for comment. However, Paredes claims he was not the intended target. In his account, the agents were after another woman, a hearing individual, in the same vicinity. The agents apparently changed their focus to him.
The end result was an 18-year-old student tackled by armed federal agents, taken into custody, cited for noncompliance, even though he could not hear the agents’ orders and was never provided with an interpreter during his detention.
According to Paredes, the experience was surreal. When the agents took him into custody, he was not provided with an interpreter. His requests to use the bathroom were ignored. His chest was hurting him after being tackled. He felt like he was all alone, even though he was surrounded by the agents. “I used my phone to communicate,” he wrote. “There were so many people, overlapping noises. I couldn’t understand what was happening.”
Despite the traumatic experience, Paredes has been clear that he will not back down.
On social media, Paredes has been rallying for increased accessibility within the LAUSD and urging the Latinx community and deaf/hard-of-hearing allies to show up at his upcoming court hearing. His court date is scheduled for April 1.
“I’m going to keep showing up,” Paredes wrote. “This needs to stop.”
And in one final message that has been shared around the internet, Paredes summed up his position quite simply:
“The goal is for ICE to melt—and we are fire. We have the power.”
What happened to Anthony Paredes was not a misunderstanding; it was a failure of basic rights and human decency. A deaf teenager was punished for not following commands he couldn’t hear, denied an interpreter, and responded to with force for exercising his right to protest.
This is more than a story about one student. It’s about whether civil rights apply to disabled individuals, to youth, and to those who dare to challenge state violence. Accountability shouldn’t have to wait for national outrage, but here we are.
If justice is anything, the charges against Anthony must be dropped, and the systems that allowed this to happen must change.
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