A US citizen who was seen on home security video being chased by masked federal agents outside New Orleans amid the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown says she surmises that she was pursued because “I’m brown”.
“I have no idea why they targeted me,” Jacelynn Guzman told the Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana on Thursday, a day after the video in question was taken and subsequently went viral online.
“That’s honestly all I can think of … It makes me scared for my family. It’s devastating.”
Asked for comment about Guzman’s remarks, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson issued a statement saying she matched the description of someone who was being sought by border patrol agents in connection with a deportation order.
The statement, provided on Friday, said agents ultimately determined Guzman “was not the target” and then departed the area without making arrests.
Guzman’s case nonetheless provided the public with a stark glimpse into the tactics being used by immigration agents who descended on Louisiana’s most populous city as well as the surrounding region with a goal of making 5,000 arrests in the coming weeks.
As the 22-year-old Guzman put it to WWL, she was walking back from a corner store near her home in Marrero, Louisiana, on Wednesday when an SUV pulled up next to her. More unmarked cars soon arrived, and men clad in masks and tactical gear poured out.
Guzman said she thought she was about to be kidnapped, and she sprinted toward her front door in plain view of a home security camera.
“Leave me alone!” she could be heard saying on the video, with at least one masked man running after her and two others trailing behind more slowly.
Guzman – whose family identifies as Hispanic – told WWL she had no idea why the men would approach her beside the fact that “I’m brown.” She said she had no criminal record and told one of the agents, “I was born and raised here. I’m a US citizen.”
“He did not care at all,” Guzman said to the station.
The Trump administration told WWL that it had deployed immigration agents across New Orleans-area communities including Marrero as part of an operation focused on violent offenders illegally residing in the US.
The DHS’s statement on Friday said the person for whom Guzman was mistaken had been previously charged with felony theft and convicted of illegal possession of stolen property. Neither are considered violent offenses under Louisiana law, though the statement – without naming the individual – referred to that person as a “public safety threat”.
The statement added that “agents identified themselves” during their encounter with Guzman. They ran toward Guzman’s home when she did, stopped “upon reaching the property”, and left when they realized she was not the person they were after, the DHS’s statement said.
Guzman’s stepfather told WWL that he ordered the agents who had been pursuing her off their property. The home security video at the center of Guzman’s case also captured him pointing at the agents and noting that at least one of them seemed Hispanic.
“Hispanic people against Hispanic people, bro!” he could be heard shouting.
Guzman said she couldn’t help but believe the agents who chased her might be “racially profiling all people of color”.
“It’s wrong,” she said to WWL.
By the time Guzman had spoken with the outlet, at least dozens of people had been arrested in the immigration sweep across the New Orleans area, plunging its immigrant communities into fear.
Most in US immigration detention are immigrants with no criminal record, according to government data reported previously by the Guardian.