A newly released body-camera video shows an Oklahoma City police officer stepping into a tense roadside confrontation after federal immigration agents detained a U.S. citizen who had stopped to check on a coworker. Jesson Baez said he was only trying to call the coworker’s family, but ended up handcuffed on Interstate 44 and insisting, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”
The encounter happened just after 8:30 a.m. July 9 near the I-44 exit for the Northwest Expressway, according to KOCO-TV. Baez had pulled over after seeing his coworker detained by ICE agents in an unmarked vehicle, and the Oklahoma City officer was driving to another call when he saw the scene and intervened.
The video shows an ICE agent handing Baez over to the local officer, who places him in handcuffs. The Oklahoma City Police Department says non-supervisor patrol officers use body-worn cameras, giving the public a record of the unusual handoff between federal immigration agents and local police.
Baez told KOCO that a woman in a green uniform told him he was under arrest or could face federal charges, while he repeatedly said he was a U.S. citizen. He also said his father came to the United States legally. Some portions of the footage have no audio, and ICE had not responded to KOCO’s request for comment while Oklahoma City police declined to comment on the incident.
The Footage Lands Amid Oklahoma’s Expanding ICE Debate
Baez’s encounter comes as Oklahoma City has wrestled with a growing federal immigration presence. Earlier this year, KGOU reported that plans for a proposed ICE processing facility in southwest Oklahoma City collapsed after the property owners ended discussions with the federal government following strong public criticism.
Immigration attorney and state Sen. Michael Brooks-Jimenez said some of his American citizen clients have faced federal assault charges after trying to ask questions during immigration encounters. He also said one prosecution was dismissed after necessary witnesses were deported, a claim that adds context to his warning that people can become entangled in federal cases even when they were not the initial target.
What The Bodycam Shows — And What It Does Not
The video captures a strange jurisdictional split: a local officer handcuffs Baez, but also tells him he will be free to go once the federal agents leave. It does not, by itself, establish whether the initial ICE detention was lawful, and the report does not identify criminal charges filed against Baez.
For now, the public record shows a U.S. citizen pulled into an immigration encounter while trying to help a coworker, a local officer stepping between him and federal agents, and a recording with enough missing audio to leave some of the most important questions unanswered.
