Dear Field Office Director Giles,
I am writing to call for the release of “citizen journalist” Carlitos Ricardo Parias Ramales (A#246-059-603). I am alarmed at the excessive use of force and subsequent medical neglect against Mr. Parias.
In October 2025, masked federal immigration agents shot and critically injured Mr. Parias while attempting to arrest him outside his home for immigration purposes. As is now a regular occurrence with ICE violence, agents claimed that he had assaulted a federal officer. While in the hospital he was subsequently charged with assault for what transpired and taken into U.S. Marshals custody, despite being in need of ongoing medical care.
A federal judge ultimately dismissed the indictment against Mr. Parias for the assault charge after the government failed to adhere to Mr. Parias’s constitutional rights to a fair trial. However, while in the custody of the U.S. Marshals, he was transferred into ICE custody where he remains today.
Mr. Parias is detained inside the cruel and abusive Adelanto ICE Processing Center, where four people have died since September 2025. ICE continues to detain him under the Trump Administration’s no bond policy for people who entered without inspection. However, Mr. Parias is detained in the jurisdiction where there is an injunction on that policy—making his detention both arbitrary and unlawful.
As a result of being denied adequate medical care, Mr. Parias continues to suffer pain and swelling from the gunshot wound. Despite this, he continues to report and sound the alarm on the treatment and care of other people detained inside Adelanto, including the presence of worms in the drinking water.
I am concerned that Mr. Parias was targeted by ICE due to his work as a self-described “citizen journalist”. Months prior to his arrest, federal agents physically assaulted him while he was covering an immigration enforcement action and wearing his ‘PRESS’ vest. His arrest and detention are part of a broader erosion of human rights in the United States, including the right to free expression, both inside detention and out.
I urge you to immediately release Mr. Parias from detention so that he may receive critical medical attention, and return to his community where he can continue to exercise his right to freedom of expression.
Lisätietoa
Carlitos Ricardo Parias, also known as Richard, is a self-described “citizen journalist” in Los Angeles, California. He is a Mexican citizen with a visa application and has lived in the USA since 2002. With a TikTok following of over 126,000, he has been recognized by a Los Angeles city councilmember for his on-the-ground reporting, including on immigration enforcement , and he has become a well-known figure in his community. In June 2025, federal agents assaulted him as he was documenting and following an ICE vehicle and wearing a ‘PRESS’ vest. Reportedly, local bystanders intervened and took him to get medical attention and federal agents did not pursue him further that day.
On 21 October 2025, masked federal immigration agents waited in unmarked vehicles outside of Mr. Parias’s home. While Mr. Parias was driving away from his home, ICE agents boxed in his vehicle. As they got out of their car and approached him, one agent shot Mr. Parias in the arm from the passenger side, causing critical injuries. Mr. Parias was hospitalized for a few days, during which the government also charged him for “assaulting a federal officer” and ICE issued a detainer against him. This charge is frequently claimed by immigration agents against immigrant members of communities to portray them as violent criminals, a claim often found baseless in court.
Despite the fact that two federal judges had ordered Mr. Parias released on bail for the assault charge, on 24 November, U.S. Marshals transferred Mr. Parias to ICE custody at the Adelanto ICE Processing Centre. In December, the federal judge presiding over his criminal case dismissed the indictment after the government failed to adhere to Mr. Parias’s constitutional rights to a fair trial. The government has appealed this ruling.
Mr. Parias continues to be arbitrarily detained under the Trump Administration’s mandatory detention policy whereby people who entered the country without inspection are ineligible for bond. There is an injunction blocking the implementation of this policy in the federal district where Mr. Parias is detained, yet he remains detained unlawfully. This policy will soon be considered before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Adelanto ICE Processing Centre is an immigration detention centre that organizations, including Amnesty International, have called to be shut down due to human rights concerns. Four people have died at Adelanto since September 2025. Mr. Parias has been detained there for nearly a year with minimal medical attention to address his persistent pain and swelling from his gunshot wounds. His lawyers described to Amnesty International that his arm “looks swollen and the wrong colour”, even 10 months after the shooting. While in detention, Mr. Parias exposed unsanitary drinking water that contains worms at Adelanto.
Since January 2025, the Trump administration has repeatedly attacked journalists for reporting on government actions and abuses. Examples of these attacks include the deportation of USA-based journalist and asylum-seeker Mario Guevara, who reported on ICE raids; the detention of USA-based journalist and asylum seeker, Estefany Rodriguez, ; the ongoing prosecution against journalist Georgia Fort and other journalists who reported on an anti-ICE protests at Cities Church in, Minnesota; the subpoenas issued against reporters at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal for sources and phone records; the FBI seizure of personal and professional devices from a Washington, DC, reporter’s home; the White House’s launch of a website focused on attacking journalists and media outlets; and the weaponization of the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to approve licensing and corporate media mergers based on corporate rejection of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
The active targeting and discrediting of reporters and the media by those in power is a common authoritarian practice. Narrative control and silencing dissent or non-aligned reporting are key strategies for those in power to seek to act without accountability. The right to freedom of expression and press is a way for the public to hold leaders accountable; without this, leaders are further emboldened to act with impunity.