30-year-old man dragged from California surgery center as ICE agents clash with staff

Ontario, California – A Honduran landscaper fleeing federal immigration agents ran into a private surgical center Tuesday morning, setting off a dramatic confrontation between ICE officers and medical staff who refused to back down without proper legal documentation.

Video of the standoff at Ontario Advanced Surgery Center has spread quickly across social media, showing staff in scrubs physically placing themselves between the gasping man and an armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent wearing a mask and bulletproof vest.

“Get your hands off of him. You don’t even have a warrant,” one staff member says firmly in the video. “Let him go. You need to get out.”

The man, identified as a 30-year-old Honduran national, was ultimately taken into custody by ICE. But the exchange has fueled rising concerns over the growing boldness of federal immigration enforcement in public spaces—including medical facilities—without transparency or community accountability.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement later in the day, saying its officers were conducting a “targeted operation” to arrest two men unlawfully present in the U.S. The statement also accused the clinic staff of “assaulting law enforcement” and obstructing the arrest. Ontario Advanced Surgery Center has not publicly responded.

Javier Hernandez, executive director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, pushed back on ICE’s characterization. He said it’s unlikely this was a truly “targeted” operation, noting that agents also questioned two of the man’s coworkers—one a U.S. citizen, the other a legal permanent resident—before letting them go.

According to Hernandez, the Honduran man had been working to support his mother’s dialysis treatments back home. His current whereabouts remain unknown.

“What we’re seeing is federal agents acting without regard for civil space or due process,” Hernandez said. “It’s horrifying to watch. These tactics are getting more aggressive, more public, and harder to ignore.”

The confrontation comes amid a wave of high-profile immigration actions across California. Earlier this week, the bishop of San Bernardino formally excused parishioners from their weekly Mass obligation after ICE raids took place at two churches in his diocese. And in San Francisco, officers were filmed dragging a man from an immigration courthouse and loading him into a black SUV as protesters clung to the vehicle to stop it from leaving.

In that case, the car eventually sped away, shaking the final protester from the hood.

With the federal government increasing the visibility and force of its immigration tactics, community advocates are warning that the balance between law enforcement and civil rights is rapidly eroding.

The bravery of the Ontario clinic staff, Hernandez said, was a stark reminder that even small acts of resistance—asking to see a warrant, refusing to surrender without explanation—can matter in moments of institutional overreach.

But whether those acts are enough to slow a broader trend remains an open question.