A Long Beach family says a federal immigration operation in North Long Beach left a U.S. citizen with a broken arm, scrapes and bruises after agents struck him with an unmarked vehicle and tased him twice near Elm Avenue and 56th Street. Ricardo Gonzalez, 40, was born in Hanford, California, according to his daughter, Leslie Gonzalez, who says he was handcuffed face down in a gutter while telling agents his arm was broken.
The encounter, reported Sunday by Long Beach Watchdog, quickly drew Long Beach Police Department officers and firefighters to the scene. Video captured by Sherman Austin shows Gonzalez handcuffed on the ground as he described his injury, and footage posted to TikTok shows an ICE agent searching his wallet for identification even as his ID remained in his pocket, Leslie Gonzalez said. She says her father's identification and his Meta glasses were never returned.
Police Pulled Into a Chaotic Scene
According to the Long Beach Police Department, ICE personnel requested emergency assistance from LBPD and the Long Beach Fire Department because of vehicle vandalism and a person needing medical aid. An LBPD officer located Gonzalez handcuffed, bleeding and detained, and officers ultimately removed his handcuffs at a nearby fire station before fire department personnel took him to a local hospital.
Residents in the area placed trash cans in the street in an apparent attempt to obstruct federal vehicles, according to videos cited by the Long Beach Watchdog report, and the obstruction reportedly prevented fire department personnel from immediately reaching the scene. In a separate video from the same operation, masked federal agents handcuffed a woman and placed her in an unmarked vehicle; a man identifying himself as her husband said she was a U.S. citizen. LBPD officers positioned themselves between federal agents and the man in an apparent effort to de-escalate the situation, while a crowd captured on video posted by @oc_inside demanded agents release the woman. The ICE agent did not immediately pursue her after she ran down the street.
ICE agents later followed Long Beach police personnel to a secure parking lot at a police station, where they were directed to leave. The department said ICE could instead contact the city's communications center to file a vandalism report and that an officer would respond. LBPD reported making zero arrests during the incident and said in a statement that it does not assist in immigration enforcement but cannot legally obstruct or interfere with federal enforcement operations.
Eight Years With the City, Then a Hospital Bed
Leslie Gonzalez said her father worked for the City of Long Beach for about eight years, first in the health department and later in the utilities department, before leaving his position in September. She described him as in pain, struggling to sit or stand after the encounter, and said he showed up to his son's soccer game Sunday with his arm in a sling. He learned car repair from his father, a Mexican immigrant, and in quieter times enjoys riding his e-bike, watching television, playing PlayStation games and fixing up family cars, according to his daughter.
Leslie Gonzalez created a GoFundMe campaign to cover her father's hospital bills and potential legal expenses; it had an initial goal of $6,500 and had raised $8,100 by noon Sunday. Wendy Rodriguez, who described Gonzalez as her godchild and part of her spiritual family, is among those who have spoken publicly about him. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to the Long Beach Watchdog's requests for comment.
City Leaders Condemn the Operation
Long Beach officials condemned the federal operation. Mayor Rex Richardson said residents and families should not have to face fear in their own neighborhoods, and said the city was coordinating with election officials to ensure safe access to polling places, raising the possibility that the timing of immigration enforcement could amount to voter intimidation.
Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, who represents the 8th District where the incident occurred, called on agents to keep their hands off residents and said Gonzalez is an American citizen and former city employee. She condemned what she described as ICE stops and harassment of residents based on skin color.
A Pattern of Federal-Local Friction
The Saturday incident lands against a backdrop of expanding state and local restrictions on immigration enforcement. California's SB 54, the Values Act effective since 2018, bars state and local police from using agency resources to assist civil immigration enforcement or arresting people based solely on deportation warrants, according to the ACLU of Southern California. The Long Beach City Council built on that framework in August 2025 by designating non-public areas of city-owned property as Non-Public Secure Locations marked with No Entry signs to block ICE agents without judicial warrants, with disciplinary measures for city employees who violate the policy.
The operation also followed a September 16 federal court injunction in Vasquez Perdomo v. Mullin barring federal agents across seven Southern California counties, including Los Angeles County, from making warrantless civil immigration arrests without an individualized assessment that a person is likely to flee before a warrant can be obtained. Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 937 on September 29, authored by Long Beach State Senator Lena Gonzalez, restricting flash-bang grenades and banning their use along with explosive breaching charges during immigration operations starting January 1, 2027. Newsom signed a companion measure from the same senator, Senate Bill 423, the same day, requiring local emergency agencies to disclose 911 calls and dispatch records from private immigration detention facilities.
Long Beach has seen similar flashpoints before. In January, federal agents detained two gardeners in East Long Beach, including a man who said he was a U.S. dual citizen born at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, an encounter Hoodline reported on amid broader community fear. A Long Beach car-wash operation led to seven workers being detained, with one collapsing while in custody. The City Council had already approved $1.9 million for the Long Beach Justice Fund in its 2026 budget to provide free legal representation for low-income immigrants facing deportation.
It remains unclear whether the ICE agents involved in Saturday's encounter had an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, how the operation squares with the federal injunction issued last month, or whether civil rights claims or internal Department of Homeland Security investigations will follow.
