U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released new details about a Monday morning operation in Pasadena that ended with three men taken into custody after a six-hour standoff and crowd confrontation.
Residents first reported heavy law enforcement activity near West Houston Avenue and Dade Street shortly after sunrise on Monday. Witnesses said ICE agents followed several men from a nearby gas station before surrounding a home. Family members claimed the men—who worked together at a local flooring company—had left for work around 5 a.m. and returned when they realized they were being followed.
Neighbors told reporters that agents cut the power to the home, threatened to use tear gas, and attempted to force entry. Video shared online showed officers from multiple agencies surrounding the property as dozens of residents gathered and shouted at law enforcement.
Yet, in a statement Tuesday, ICE disputed those accounts, saying agents were conducting a “targeted vehicle stop” on 28-year-old Oscar Daniel Barrón Hernandez, an alien who has allegedly entered the United States illegally three times.
According to ICE, Barrón Hernandez ignored lawful commands to stop, fled the vehicle, and ran into the residence with two passengers who barricaded themselves inside.
“The suspect brazenly defied lawful commands to stop the vehicle and fled from the scene, endangering the local community, the officers, his two passengers, and himself,” an ICE spokesperson said.
ICE officials told KHOU 11 that agents did not damage the home and were working to obtain a criminal arrest warrant during the standoff. They said the men ultimately surrendered peacefully before a warrant was necessary.
The agency described the incident as tense but controlled, saying a crowd outside the home shouted obscenities at officers as they worked to de-escalate the situation.
“We are proud of our ICE law enforcement who handled themselves with the utmost professionalism as they were taunted and called names for simply enforcing our nation’s laws,” the agency said.
Margarita Barrón, the wife of Oscar Barrón Hernandez, told KPRC 2 she didn’t know why agents were pursuing her husband, but acknowledged that he and her brother were illegal aliens. She said four children—ages twelve, nine, three, and six months—were inside the home during the incident.
ICE confirmed all three men were taken into custody and said the operation was part of a larger enforcement effort targeting previously deported and repeat immigration offenders.
Federal data shows reported assaults on ICE personnel have surged in the past year, with the Department of Homeland Security reporting an 830 percent increase in attacks on officers compared with the same period last year.
