A federal grand jury in California’s Central District has indicted the two surgery-center workers who tussled with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers while they apprehended an illegal alien.

Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, each face a felony count of assaulting or impeding a federal officer. The agents were attempting to arrest a Honduran illegal who ducked into the center to avoid arrest.

Charged last month, the pair can be seen on video and in still photos interfering with the officers. Their assault is one of a wave of attacks on ICE agents, and not just by leftists on the streets. Top Democrats have assaulted agents as well.

The Crime

Filed July 24, the federal criminal complaint explained that on July 8, two officers were following a truck with three illegal aliens. The truck quickly turned into the SCA Health Ontario Advanced Surgery Center’s parking lot.

The three men exited the truck, and “one of them began urinating on the exterior wall of the Surgery Center.” The two officers attempted a “consensual encounter” with the men, but “the two non-urinating males fled the area on foot in opposite directions,” the complaint said.

One of the men rushed to the surgery center followed by “Officer One.” The second officer remained with the man who did not flee. Officer One “partially detained” the illegal alien near the center’s entrance, but both fell to the ground.

“Shortly thereafter, an individual dressed in medical staff attire helped the Target Alien off the ground and assisted in pulling the Target Alien away from Officer One,” the complaint alleged:

According to Officer One, the Target Alien proceeded inside the Surgery Center towards a door that Officer One believed led into a private area of the Surgery Center. Officer One followed and stopped the Target Alien near that door.

That’s when Ortega and Davila, the complaint alleged, assaulted, impeded and interfered with the officer. Video posted to YouTube by the New York Post showed the scuffle.

“Multiple individuals — who appeared to work at the clinic based on their attire and/or the statements they made in the video — surrounded Officer One,” the complaint alleged. One was Ortega, and one was Davila.

“Officer One was facing the Target Alien with Ortega and Davila to Officer One’s left,” the complaint alleged:

Davila, along with other staff members, told Officer One to leave. A few moments later, while Officer One had a grasp on the Target Alien, Davila told Officer One, “Get your hands off of him.” Davila then lowered herself under Officer One’s outstretched arm and wedged herself between Officer One and the Target Alien. Officer One then attempted to pull the Target Alien towards him, but Officer One was unable to do so because Davila had positioned herself between Officer One and the Target Alien.

Then Ortega entered the fray, said the complaint. He “appeared to grab” the officer’s arm and vest. The officer told Ortega “not to touch him.” Davila continued impeding the officer, yelling in his face to “let him go” and “get out,” to which the officer replied by saying Davila “touched a federal agent,” the complaint continued:

Meanwhile, Ortega appears to maintain one hand on Officer One, with the other hand pointing in the opposite direction while directing Officer One to leave.

Officer One attempted to reach around Davila, who was still wedged between Officer One and the Target Alien. Davila then appears to push Officer One with her body while holding onto the door handle with her left hand and using her right hand to brace herself against the doorway for leverage. In doing so, Davila further prevented Officer One from detaining the Target Alien. Ortega then grabbed Officer One’s left arm in an apparent attempt to move Officer One away from the Target Alien and Davila.

Officer One then called his colleague for help. “They’re grabbing me,” he said. Officer Two said “multiple staff members” grabbed Officer One during the arrest. 

Later surveillance and investigation revealed Ortega and Davila to be the culprits.

The illegal alien is 30-year-old Dennis Guillen, a landscaper.

Indictment

Originally, prosecutors alleged that Ortega and Davila broke two laws. The first is 18 U.S. Code 372, conspiracy to impede or injure an officer. The second is 18 U.S. Code 111, assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal agents. 

But on Wednesday, the federal grand jury charged the two with only the assault felony. They are set for trial on October 8.

Not surprisingly, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli was forced to correct false reports about the arrest.

“The media originally reported that the illegal alien was taken during a medical appointment,” Essayli wrote on X:

That was false. The illegal alien arrested inside the surgery center was not a patient. He ran inside for cover and these defendants attempted to block his apprehension by assaulting our agents. 

This isn’t the first and won’t be the last assault on ICE agents who are attempting to enforce immigration laws.

Far-left Democratic New York City comptroller Brad Lander assaulted federal agents who were arresting an illegal at an immigration court in New York City, authorities allege.

Before that, far-left Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey, prosecutors allege, assaulted ICE agents at an illegal-alien detention facility in Newark. She faces three charges of assault.

Democrats are otherwise encouraging violence against ICE agents. The vice mayor of Cudahy, California, Cynthia Gonzalez, invited Hispanic gangs to fight with ICE in a now-famous video. U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal of California doxed an ICE agent to violent protesters when ICE showed up at a pot farm to arrest illegals.

And as The New American reported yesterday, Democrats are escalating their hate-ICE rhetoric, likening agents to Nazi storm troopers.